The stalker's poisoned dart
by Lady DuCaine
Summary: A stalker comes into the lives of the Ducks, can they save one of their own from this stalker? OFC,OMC,M/F
1. Chapter 1

The stalker's poisoned dart.  
A stalker comes into the lives of the Ducks; can they save one of their own from this stalker?

Jesse was scanning the letters that was for Kaladan. The first letter that Jesse saw made her guts twist as she recognized the hand writing and placed the letter aside as Kala looked at her with curiosity. She smiled as she stated that the letters were misplaced in her stack and were meant for Wing. She continued helping Kala with sorting the letters, putting some aside into the pile she had started that was meant for Wing. She knew she had to show the letters to Wing as soon as possible. But helping Kala read over her letters was amusing even interesting as some of the words puzzled Kala. As soon as Jesse was done with helping Kala sort and read over the letters, she headed out of Kala's private office with the letters in hand, heading for the locker room where she found Wing pulling off his pads. "Mr. Flashblade, I need to talk to you. It's urgent."

Wildwing looked over at Jesse as he removed his mask from his face. "What is the problem, Jesse?"

"Uh, we have a problem." Jesse said, as she looked at him.

"What sort of problem?"

"Uh, this sort, Wing." Jesse handed him the letters.

"Fan mail for Kala, why give them to me?" asked Wing, looking at who the letters were addressed to.

"Read them and you will know why I have them here instead of with Kala." Jesse replied.

Twenty minutes later, Wing was standing with a letter crumpled in his left hand and his right hand buried into one of the lockers, Wing turned to look at Jesse, his voice was in a tone that she never heard him speak before. "I'll handle it. Keep the letters from Kala. Don't let her know about them, Jesse."

Jesse nodded as she left the locker room knowing that Wing would probably come out and head for the police station to inform the police about this and Kala will be okay. She headed for Kala's office to see if she needed anything. Just by looking at Kala's face said it all as she sat down next to her and helped her with the word that had stumped her.

Wing took many deep breaths as he looked at the letter in his hand. He knew Tanya and Mallory would blab about this and what Grin would do about it was unknown. He knew he had to find someone who he would be able to help with protecting his future wife; he barely trusted the police with this as they would make it public and ruin any real chance of catching him. The only two ducks he could trust with this information was the only two ducks he could trust with this. He flipped his com open. "Dive, Duke, in the locker room now. I need to talk with you both." And without hearing their replies, closed his com.

Dive was just about to defeat his opponent when his com went off making him lose his game. But he heard his brother's voice on the other end demanding him to be in the locker room. He pushed the button to reply but all he got was static. He turned off the game and walked into the locker room just as Duke entered the room. "Hi Duke," he noticed the dent in the locker and the look of anger in Wing's eyes. "Wing, what's wrong?"

"We have a problem that requires silence to the others." Wing replied, as he went to the doors and closed them.

"Silence, Wing, Dive will blab about everything to Thrash and Mookie, ya know." Duke said.

"I will not!" Dive whined, looking at the old Drake.

"Not with this, Duke." Wing replied. He held the crumpled letter that he had in his hand. "Read this and the others, you will know why we need silence for."

Duke and Dive both read the letters. After the first one was read, Dive looked at Wing with eyes wide with shock. He didn't know that his future sister-in-law was being stalked. "Bro, why not go to Klegghorn? Why involve us when the police should be involved?"

"Because he will take it public and I don't want Kala to find out that she's being stalked. And truthfully, I trust you both more than the police." Wing admitted.

Duke looked at Wing. "But why us, Wing? I'm not a detective, I'm a thief."

"But why me, bro," Dive asked. "I'm not a detective, I'm just a kid."

"Yeah, why the kid, Wing, Dive is not versed in protection," Duke said.

"But Dive does know how to kill, which he may have to do if he needs to." Wing replied. Duke looked at him shocked as he turned to look at Dive. "Yes, Dive killed before. Long time ago, a Saurian Prince was who he slew. The Prince insulted him and Lola Seabird, a friend of ours."

"I can and will kill this . . . stalker if he even gets close to harming Kala." Dive stated.

"But how will we know when he tries to go after Kala? She rarely does any publicity events unless she's asked by Wing. The only time, anyone really sees her is . . . on the ice." Duke said.

"That is why I'm going to be pulling Dive from the ice this week." Wing replied.

"Wing, but I love playing!"

"Protecting my future mate is more important than a game, Dive! You are the only one I can see protecting Kala when she's on the ice." Wing said, as they walked out of the locker room and headed to the bench.

"So where will be he at, Wing?" Duke asked, looking around the stands.

"There." Wing pointed to the rafters. He then, went into details about how Dive should hide himself up there.

Duke looked where Dive would be placed at and then looked at Dive. "Dive, you will be requiring some different clothes . . . darker clothing than what you own. They will give you away, including your armor."

Dive looked at him. "What are you suggesting, Duke?"

"Well, it would be a tight fit but I think one of my burglar suits will fit you and if not, we can get it tailored to fit. My room, we'll start working on seeing if it will fit and then we can plan how to protect Kala." Duke said, as they walked to his room and locked the door.

About half an hour later, Dive and Wing emerged from Duke's room with a bag in Dive's hand. Dive headed to the recreation room to grab the phone book and scanned its business pages for a tailor to adjust something for him. After he called the store, he left the Pond to handle the clothing in question.

Wing looked at Duke before he walked away. "Silence is prudence, Duke."

"Think the kid can do what you say he can do, Wing?" asked Duke, looking at him.

"Yes." And Wing walked down the corridor carrying the letters in hand before he went into his room.

Duke shook his head as he went back into his room to put the other suits and the darker clothing away. '_I hope the kid can do what Wing says and he stops this stalker before he harms Kala_.'

* * *

Wing decided to go find Kala; first place he checked out was her office to find that she was not there anymore. He headed for the recreation room where he found her reading books that she had in her hand. He noticed the title of one of the books - he wondered why she would be reading children's books. He sat down next to her and looked at the books. "Why read these books, Kala?"

Kala looked at him and then the books. "They help me learn all the words that all of the people of Earth know when they're growing up. It also helps me when it comes time to read to my children when I finally birth my children, Wing."

"We learned from watching TV and Dive learned it faster than we did. He helped us learn everything by putting the Earth words on what is the proper word for that item." Wing said.

"He did that?"

"Yes, maybe you should hang out with him. He'll help speed you up on the language, Kala." Wing replied.

"It would be fun to hang with him again. It had been a while since we did that." Kala said, with a smile. "Maybe you can come too? Get away from being a leader for a change and relax."

Wing looked at Kala. He thought to himself, '_It would be believable if I'm hanging out with them too. I'll have to cut it short though. I could have Duke call me for something, so they can be alone._' He smiled. "Sure, it should be fun. I haven't really had a day off from being a leader."

Kala smiled as she started to stand up and picking up the books that she had on the couch, she watched as Wing headed for the kitchen. She knew it would ease Wing's strain on his mind if he got to drop his leadership mindset for a few hours.

Wing watched Kala through the blinds in the kitchen as she put the books up in the book case as he opened his com and called on Duke. "Duke, in one hour and thirty minutes from now, I want you to buzz me with a question that only I can help you with. I'm going out with Kala and Dive."

"I'll figure something out, Wing. Don't worry." Duke said, as he ended the conversation.

Wing closed his com and walked out of the kitchen, heading to where Kala was standing at. He smiled as he gave her his arm to hold as they headed out of the recreation room and out of the Pond towards Captain Comics knowing that would probably be where Dive was hanging out at. But the moment that Wing stepped from the Pond itself, he went stiff and on high alert as his eyes scanned the area as they walked.

It took them about twenty minutes to get to Captain Comics, to find Dive standing there chatting with Mookie and Thrash. Dive turned to see Wing standing there and then Kala came in behind him. He knew he was now on duty. He smiled towards them. "Hey Wing, Kala, did you two come to ruin my fun here?"

"No, I decided to be a regular person today and hang out with my future wife and my brother." Wing said, he also gave Dive a wink.

"Oh okay, I was about to go have a bite to eat. Hot dogs anyone?" Dive asked, looking at Kala and Wing.

"Hot dogs?" Kala asked, puzzled. "The humans eat dogs?"

Thrash and Mookie chuckled as Dive smiled as he shook his head. "No, Kala. Hot dog is a food product made out of any one of these ingredients beef, chicken, pork or turkey, placed in a long bun and topped with almost anything. I'll show you one at Wiener World when we get there."

"Sounds strange to call it a hot dog," Kala replied, as they started to walk out of Captain Comics.

"I know but they sure do taste good." Dive said, as they walked away from Captain Comics.

They strode towards Wiener World, only stopping a few times to sign autographs and get pictures done with their fans before they reached the hot dog restaurant. Dive held the door open as Kala and Wing entered and then he followed behind after scanning the area. He went to where they would place their order at. "Hey, I would like one extra-long hot dog with chili and extra cheese on it, please. Two hot dogs with everything on it, please. One hot dog with relish, mustard and ketchup, please. And three medium waters, please."

"That will be fourteen dollars, Nosedive." The female worker said, as she smiled at him as she pulled out three medium cups and placed it by Dive's hand, as she took the money from him and put the extra into the tip jar as Dive told her to put the extra from his twenty in the tip jar. "It will be a bit before they're ready."

Dive turned to Wing to see him gathering a few napkins and watched as Kala tried to figure out how to operate the soda machine to get the water. He walked over and took hold of the cups and showed her where the water sprout was located at and how to get the water from it. "It will be some time before you're able to do this alone, Kala."

"What is this . . . thing, Dive?" Kala asked, pointing to the soda machine.

"That's a soda machine, a self serve machine where you push a button and hold the cup under it like so," Dive said, as he held the cup under the water sprout and pushed the button.

Kala's eyes went wide. "It's like magic. How does it work again?"

Dive smiled as he showed her how it operated. The employees watched with amusement as Kala learned about the equipment that they took for granted.

The girl who did their order placed the tray at the pick-up window. "Hey Dive, your food is here."

Dive glanced over his shoulder and smiled. "The food is here cool. Wing, go find a seat for all three of us, I'll be there shortly." He turned to the girl and picked up the tray as he turned to see Wing taking Kala to a window seat and headed there.

Soon, he placed the hot dogs in front of them and dove into his. He glanced up to see Kala looking weird at the hot dog. "What's wrong, Kala?" Dive asked.

"How do you eat them?" she asked.

Dive looked at her and smiled. "Like this." He picked up his hot dog and he started to eat it at the end of the bun. He placed it down and finished swallowing what he bit. "That is how you eat a hot dog,"

Kala looked puzzled by it as she picked her hot dog up and took a bite out of it and started to chew it. She said something as she ate.

"Kala, wait till you are done chewing and swallowing what you have in your mouth before you speak." Dive replied. Kala nodded as she finished chewing. "So what do you think of it?"

"It is very interesting. I never tasted anything so tasty before." She replied, looking at him, before she started to go heavy into eating her two hot dogs that he ordered for her.

Dive smiled at Wing as they dug into their hot dogs, when a beep sound was heard. They looked at their coms to see Duke's face on the view screen. "Yes, Duke?"

Duke didn't really smile. "Wing, I need your help with a project and I don't want to involve Mallory in it because she'll just ruin it."

Dive looked at Kala and whispered. "Looks like he's trying to flirt with her and needs my brother's help with it."

Kala nodded as she understood how it was. "Wing, go and help him. You might be able to give him some hints on how to flirt her to his side. I'll be fine here with Dive."

Wing looked at Kala and smiled. "Are you sure?"

"Sure, it has been a while since Dive and I chatted for any length of time." Kala replied, looking at Dive and him.

Wing looked at his hot dog and then to Duke's face on the com. "I'll be right over. Wing out." He picked up his hot dog as he started to scoot out of the table and kissed Kala before he looked at Dive. "Keep an eye on her, Dive." And he strode out of Weiner World eating his hot dog as he went.

Dive smiled as he looked at Kala. "I guess you probably want to know what the stuff that you see here is meant for, Kala."

"Yes, I am not familiar with them, Dive. They are still a bit strange to me." Kala said, as she finished her two hot dogs.

"Okay, lets' start off with this." Dive pointed to the table and said its name in English and what it does. He continued with the napkins, windows, trash bins, and he went on till they got outside and he started to point out trees and various other things as they walked towards the park where they sat on a bench watching people walk by.

"It is very peaceful here, Dive." Kala said, as she looked at the area.

"Yeah, so what made you be with him?" Dive asked, as he looked at her.

"Who is him, Dive, do you mean Wing?" Kala asked, somewhat puzzled by what he asked.

"No, I don't mean my brother but Drake DuCaine. What made you be with him?" Dive said, sitting on the bench where he could look at her directly.

Kala looked at him before looking away. "I'm not sure why I stayed with him."

"So what was he like?" asked Dive.

Kala looked hard at him. "I do not want to ruin your respect for him by telling you what he was really like."

"You won't, Kala." Dive replied.

Kala looked at him and shook her head. "Dive, yes, I will. The legend about him portrays him as a hero when in real life; he really wasn't one at all."

Dive looked at her. "You mean he wasn't the hero they say he is?"

"Yes, he was not the hero. He was in fact the villain but he believed that he was the hero of the Vendetta." Kala said.

"Okay, tell me everything about the war against the Saurians, Kala." Dive looked at her seriously.

"It actually wasn't solely against the Saurians, Dive but another group of Ducks as well, called The Surfers." Kala said. She proceeded to tell him everything about how the Saurians came to their world after their planet Sauria blew up and they came here in peace, they shared their technology with them as they shared land space with the others. It was only after Drake's father seeing him hang out with a Saurian female turned Scientist and a Surfer Princess turned Scientist did he begin the first war between the races. She told him that after Drake's father was killed mysteriously, Drake continued the war. She didn't know what type of drake he really was, married him and when the night to consummate the marriage he showed her his true self and forced her. He battered her several times during their marriage and most of the times when he was defeated by the Saurians and the Surfers; she would get violated by him. Till the day he finally died, she ended the war but she knew that the war didn't really stop with her, but something else did stop it. She looked at Dive calmly. "Now tell me what do you think about your so-called hero, Dive?"

"I knew that already," Dive said. Kala looked shocked at him. "I have to act like I worship Drake DuCaine when I knew what a butcher he really is, Lady DuCaine, to keep what I knew secret."

"How did you find out?" Kala asked.

"Lola allowed me to read some of her books on Drake DuCaine and I learned the truth about him." Dive said.

Kala looked at him in surprise. "How long have you known?"

"Since a bit before you came back from the Ancients."

"So you knew before I returned?"

"Yes."

"So why did you want to know about him if you already knew?"

"Confirmation, I wanted to know just how accurate the books were. Then again I think the only naive one left among us is my older brother, sounds silly I guess but we need him to use the mask to end this conflict but if he knew the truth it might break his fighting spirit. I'm not sure if you've even noticed, but Tanya has slipped up enough times for me to know she knows, Grin has an off-world accent, he's not native to Puckworld, Lola told me about Duke and the trade negotiations with him in the mountain kingdom, the lord of the mountains is also a king of thieves. As for Mallory, watch her closely and you will see the aspects of a living weapon. I don't think she's Dove but I have to wonder what her ties are to them."

"I try not to be too close to Mallory, she doesn't seem to take to well to me. Duke, I think he hates me just because of who I am, Tanya is aware of who I am before I even said anything about that I am Lady DuCaine. Grin is definitely off-world, he has a tongue that belongs to a different race of Ducks, I'm not sure what kind but it is not any we know." Kala said.

"Tri-Markey region or maybe Rim, there are avian races among both. Every thing considered Kala we are probably the worst group to have fight Dragaunus because push come to shove we probably have the least hurdles with him, it's all a battle of pride which means it won't be over till one side is dead."

"Meaning the Tri-Markey is more dangerous than Dragaunus is if they were our enemies?"

"In a way, Kala," Dive said. "So want to head back to the Pond or talk more here about what I know about our home world?"

"Here, I want to know what you know about our home world?"

They spent the next two hours sitting on the bench chatting about their home world. Kala learned that Dive was not the stupid kid that Canard had spoken about in his letters to her.

"Let's head back before Wildwing worries, he's still a chronic mother hen." Dive said as he got up from the bench.

"I guess he got that way after the invasion hit, he wasn't like that when I was around him, unless he was like this when we were kids and he never got over it,"

"I think it's always been, but I could be wrong."

Kala looked at him as they headed back to the Pond. "I remember Canard and him trying their best to keep the bullies away but till that day, they thought I was nothing but a rich girl gone poor,"

"I wasn't there, what did you do?" Dive asked.

"I burned the main bully's face from what mom told me in one of the letters that he lost all of his feathers on his face and have to wear a face mask or stay indoors for the rest of his life. I seriously doubt that he did remain indoors but I doubt that he would try to bully a girl anymore. I taught him good." Kala smiled.

"Maybe, but it can also come back to haunt you,"

"True, but I told him to back off, leave me be or I'll burn him." Kala said. "And the thing was . . . I didn't know if I could do the spell that they were asking the boys. It was just pure luck that it worked at all."

"No such thing as pure luck, we all exist for a reason, it's more of a matter who's pawns we are or a willing to be in the greater scheme of things."

"I guess so. So let me ask you something?" asked Kala.

"Sure,"

"Have you ever seen him, he whose name cannot be spoken, but are revered by the Necromancers?"

"You mean . . . ." Dive whispered the name to Kala, who nodded. "I have not met him. Have you?"

"I have met his messengers and he is just as misunderstood as the Saurians were during the time of the Vendetta." Kala replied.

Dive nodded silently. He never knew she had encountered him, the one that they called Morningstar. But there was stuff that Kala didn't know about and he told Wing not to tell anyone about it. He knew he needed to get into contact with them soon as they headed across the street towards the Pond.

Wing was waiting for them when they got in, "Dive it's almost practice time, there's the game in a couple night and we have to be at our best."

"Yeah, I know. But I need to do some shopping for something." Dive said.

"Later on today, bro. We need to practice." Wing replied.

"Okay. But only three hours, bro." Dive said, as he headed for the locker room.

"Well, okay." Wing walked next to Kala as they headed into the locker room. Dive was already at his locker pulling out his jersey. Kala grabbed hers and headed for the other room to change. "So what do you need to buy?"

Dive looked to his big brother, "A set of throwing daggers, puck blaster doesn't cut it for this." Dive whispered to Wing.

"That is going to be hard to find here. How are you going to find them?" Wing asked.

"Don't worry about it, I'll find a way to get them." Dive said.

"Just be careful Dive."

"Don't worry, this is the stuff I'm good at Wing."

"I know, just be careful, okay and make sure that she doesn't know?"

"She won't know." Dive replied, as he finished pulling on his jersey and started to strap on his pads. "Hey Kala,"

Wing turned to look at Kala all ready to play hockey. He couldn't help but to smile. "Are you going to try to get some pucks past me this time around?"

"I'm going to try, Wing." Kala said, as they headed to the ice to join the others on the ice.

The practice was not what the others had expected, Wing was awful. It was like he had something on his mind bothering him to the point of big time distractions. Everyone got a puck past him. Dive looked at his brother and shook his head, the stalker threat on Kala got him distracted big time. "Wing, your game is way off, I'm going up onto the jumbo tron so Wing, try to relax, I don't think any of us wants to end practice till you can at least stop the pucks."

Wing shook his head. "Go on, Dive. Keep them coming, guys. I need the practice it seems."

Wing kept attempting to block when he spotted Dive up on the jumbo tron, he hated to admit it but having Dive keep an eye on things from above actually settled his nerves enough that he could stop the pucks from getting through.

Kala looked at him after the two hours of practice made her smile as whatever was bothering him went away and he started to be the team captain that they knew he was. As they were getting off the ice, she looked at him. "Wing, what was bothering you so much that you played so horribly?"

"I was worried about the support cables on the jumbo tron, it gets jostled a lot when we use the Aerowing, that's why Dive went up to there was to double check them and to ease my nerves."

Kala looked at him carefully. He knew she was watching him as in if he was telling her the truth or lying, he pinched his hand to keep from revealing. She shook her head as she walked past him. "Next time, Wing, don't lie to me about that. Tanya always checks the jumbo tron after we come back."

"Not this time, Kala. I remembered while I was on the ice and told Wing." Tanya said, as she walked past them.

Kala frowned, Wing was keeping something from her but so far everything was adding up, maybe it was something to do with Phil, Wing didn't always tell her about those but then again once dealt with it was never of much concern and she didn't read his mind as he knew he liked his privacy there. Wing sighed as Kala went into the girls' locker room, Duke raised a brow. "That was a close one Wing."

"I know, I don't know how long I can keep it silent." Wing whispered.

"Keep what silent?" Mallory asked, as she stood at the door. Wing and Duke turned to look to see Mallory standing there. "You can tell me the truth about this."

Wing looked at Duke. "The doors, Duke." Duke went to the doors and watched for Kala. Wing looked over at Mallory and told her everything that was happening of the past few hours.

Mallory cringed. "Keep her in the dark; she's an Ancient so she wouldn't know how to deal with it. I have to agree though with Dive being off the ice and up there till it's resolved since we can't risk Duke off the ice during a game, despite being a thief he's still a great defense."

"He's the best choice since he can kill if the need arises that it is needed." Wing replied.

"Canard never really told us what he did?" Mallory asked.

"And it is something that Dive will have to tell you as that is his to talk about." Wing replied.

Dive smirked. "I'm sure Mallory has done worse . . . off the military record than I've done Wing."

Mallory jumped out of her spot as she looked at Dive. "I didn't even hear you come into the room, Dive."

"What can I say, I'm sneaky when I need to be," Dive smiled towards her.

"So what did you mean by that comment Dive?"

"Oh come on girly girl, do I really have to spell it out for you? Or can't you tell when others have blood on their feathers?"

Mallory looked at him a bit shocked. "What do you think I have blood on my feathers?"

"Oh yes, you have that look about yourself, Mallory. You slew many in your time," Dive smiled, as he looked at her with his hand motioned to the door as Duke was shaking his head alerting them to the approach of Kala. "Later Mal, I need to do some shopping."

Mallory wondered why he said that when Duke spoke up. "Well, if Wing doesn't get distracted, we'll do great."

"Wing should be fine. I know he's worried about Phil talking her into stunts especially with that last one he came up with, Kala needs to get use to humans before being in the spotlight like that."

"I doubt Phil will try to do any of his stunts, especially after the photo shoot that was done right after the interview and then the day after that, making her go in front of them. She was close to bolting from there or worse letting her secret be known." Duke replied.

Dive shook his head. "But when she got here with him and hidden in our elevator, she pinned him against the wall and chewed him out. I know because he told me what she did and I told him don't bother her or she'll do something very bad to him."

Kala paused as she listened into the conversation, her hunch had been right, Wing's distraction was mainly Phil, and the jumbo tron was just an extra to it all. She smiled, if it was something important they would have told her. She stepped into the room, the talk stopped but the smile that came from Wing and Dive was enough to bypass her worries. Wing looked at her as she walked over to him. "So you were only worried about Phil and his stunts that he tried to pull on me?"

"Yeah, but I told him to back off on you or I'll fire him," Wing replied.

"Wing, you wouldn't dream about firing him," Duke said.

"Phil doesn't know that."

"But the worry about him firing him is enough to keep him pushed back a bit," Dive said, as he started to head for the doors. "I'll be home late, bro."

"Okay, take care of yourself, Dive." Wing replied.

"I will," Dive walked out of the locker room.

_TBC__ . . ._


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two of stalker's poisoned dart.  
**

Duke quickly followed him out. "Hey Dive, where are you going to go shopping at?"

"I have to do some traveling to space to get them right now or get a way to get a message to a friend in space to gather my weapons," Dive said.

"You will be having trouble with the MiBs getting them through there." Duke replied, as they walked to the front door.

"Maybe and maybe not, I do have ways of getting past them." Dive said, as he gave Duke a grin. "Besides, I do have ways and connections, Duke."

"This I'd like to see kid, the MiB keeps pretty tight security when it comes to galactic stuff."

Dive looked at him and grinned. "So how well do you know galactic politics, Duke?"

"Enough to know that whomever your contacts are have to be pretty up there to get things past the MiB's."

Dive smiled. "Well, come on then. This should be fun."

Duke followed Dive to the garage where they got on the duckcycles and drove towards a location where a building was at. A quick glance around, they entered the building where they were greeted by two men in black suits. Dive looked at them. "I need to know where the space port is. My friend and I are heading off world to the nearby station."

"Galactic IDs please?" one of them asked.

"Sure, but he doesn't have any." Dive said, as he pulled his card out and showed it to them. All Duke could show was his resident Alien card.

The MiBs gave Duke an odd look but after entering Dive's card looked to Dive with what seemed to be a surprised look. "I'd have turn Mr. L'Orange away, though considering your clearance level off world. He's accompanying you as entourage?"

Duke said nothing for he wanted to see how the kid played this. Dive made a nod, "I'll hold responsibility for him off world."

"Very well," The MiB said as he handed back the ID cards as well as transport tickets to Dive and Duke. "There is an off world express in a half hour in diplomatic loading bay 2."

Duke did his best not to act surprised, what sort of clearance did the kid have to be able to get access to diplomatic transport ships.

They hurried towards the diplomatic loading bay where they were greeted by a woman who asked if they needed anything to drink or to eat. Dive smiled and thanked the woman as he told her juice for them both.

Duke looked at him. "Dive, what is your off world level here?"

"It's hard to explain, unlike Wing I've kept in contact with people we had met off world. Queen Alor of Tri-Markey is a dear friend as well as her ebon dragon personal guard, I'm in the good graces of Lady Kelsa Seabird of the Seabird Suscan trade fleet, and Lola Seabird, also known as Lolita McDove is the one who trained me, even though I've never had much reason to use the skills."

"So you know them but it still doesn't make sense, Dive,"

Dive sighed. "It means some where along the line it was decided that if I was going to travel, I'd be traveling under the protection of Tri-Markey, Seabird, and silly as it may sound, the Doves. On the galactic level just getting on the bad side of one of the three is pretty bad, getting on all their bad sides is a death wish."

"A death wish?" asked Duke.

"Yup, they're deadly, Duke." Dive replied, as he turned to look at the woman who held a plate with two glasses fruit juice on it. "Thank you." He took the glasses and handed one to Duke and sipped from his.

"Does Wing know you got that kind of pull?"

"Not a clue and I like to keep it that way."

"Okay, he won't know it from me." Duke replied. "But who is your contact in the station?"

"Hopefully, she's there. If not, I'll get in touch with her via a space phone."

"Who?"

"Trithria, an ebon dragon of the Tri-Markey Empire," Dive said. "If she is still alive, that is?"

"Why do you say that?"

"It's a dangerous job protecting Queen Alor; you never know when a person may die in the line of duty."

"Wouldn't Queen Alor notify you if that happened?" asked Duke.

"Maybe, but the last she knew I was still on Puckworld, not Earth." Dive replied, as he finished off his juice.

"But wouldn't this Lola tell her where you are living at?" Duke asked.

"Not really, Lola is a bit under her father's thumb at the moment."

"Well, they don't know where we are. It would be hard for them to find us." Duke replied.

"Exactly, so that's why I have to go through the trouble of going off world to get in contact and get what I need."

"Why can't you get it on Earth, Dive?"

"The stuff that is made on Earth is not that well made as they are in space." Dive replied.

"Meaning?" asked Duke.

"They are not that well made. I could break one if I threw it, unlike the ones made in space, they are harder to break and I'll need it if he goes after Kala." Dive replied.

"Good point, guess it's like how the Blade sees sabers, it has to be able to cut through anything."

Dive smiled just as he was about to say something, the boarding call for them came from the woman who served them their drinks. "Okay, thank you very much." He turned to look at Duke. "We can board now."

"Why did she call you Lord?" asked Duke.

"She called us both Lords, Duke." Dive replied, quickly.

"Nice try, Dive," Duke said, as they got on board. "You had told the MiB guy I'd be entourage, spill it kid."

"She called me Lord . . . Lord Flashblade. My rank in space is that of a Lord." Dive replied. "That is why I am so high ranked out here and on Earth. When we get to the station, I'll make sure that you get a Galactic ID card too."

"Why Lord?"

"I gave Lolita my oath of allegiance, as long as Lord Collin lives I will never join the Doves, the Flashblade house in the Doves was wiped out a long time ago. I'm walking a fine line Duke between everyday Puckworldian and that of a living weapon, in space even though I'm on the line they automatically assume Dove Flashblade and react accordingly, especially since that was how I got away with the first time I killed..."

"And the second time?"

"A nameless drunk drake who tried to make prey of me one night when I was out on my own,"

"Does Wing know about the second one?"

"He only knows about the first. I never made mention of the second one to anyone but Lola, who covered for me and now you." Dive replied, as he took his seat. "No one must know about what I did, Duke."

"I'm not one to judge, you're a natural killer, and I'm a natural thief, nothing either of us can do about it."

"Good, now rest, it will be a while before we get to the station that is hovering around Earth." Dive replied. "The other one is more past Pluto and would take us two weeks to get there and back and by then, Kala would have to come face to face with her stalker that she does not even know that she has."

Duke nodded as he settled in his seat and watched as Dive leaned back in his seat and drifted off to sleep before he got a little sleep in as well.

It was not too long after they drifted off to sleep did they awaken by the stewardess informing them that they were about to dock at the station. Duke looked out the window and saw the space station coming closer to them.

Duke looked at the stewardess. "Why don't we see it in the night's sky?"

Dive looked at him. "We do but we just think of it as another satellite going overhead."

"Ah," Duke replied, as he turned away from Dive to look out the window again.

"Your friend sure is a novice about space stations, my Lord." The Stewardess said.

"Well, this is the first time he ever came into outer space around Earth." Dive replied.

"I see, enjoy your stay at the station, we will be docked here till you are ready to leave."

"Thank you," Dive said, as he smiled at her as she walked away. He felt a slap on the back of his head. He turned to look at Duke whose hand moving down to his side. "Why you do that?"

"You were eying her ass, Dive." Duke replied. "That is not how a Lord should look at a woman."

Dive smirked. "And are you talking like a mountain Lord or as a leader of the Blade."

"Both," Duke smiled, as he looked at him.

Dive just shook his head as the shuttle shook as it docked on the station. "We docked very smooth. Usually, you would feel more of a shake than what we felt."

"Oh, so when will we disembark?"

"As soon as the stewardess says so," Dive said, as he looked towards the front where the stewardess moved towards the hatch to double check the connection before opening the doors.

The stewardess walked over to them. "My Lord Flashblade, the gate is open for you and your friend to disembark now."

"Thank you," Dive replied with a smile. The stewardess returned his smile as they got up and headed out of the shuttle.

Once, they stepped from the shuttle walk way, a security officer approached them. "My Lord Flashblade,"

"Yes, that is me." Dive replied, looking at him.

"Will you be using the Seabird residence of this station? It is currently not in use and you are authorized."

"Yes, I will be. I'm not planning on staying for too long here, just long enough to get into contact with an old friend of mine to send me some tools." Dive replied.

"Very well, this way please?" the officer said, as the other three guards went around Duke and Dive, before they headed towards the residential side of the station. "Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"Is the Galactic ID president here or someone in his office here?" asked Dive.

"Did you lose your ID, my Lord?"

"No, my friend Duke L'Orange is in need of a Galactic ID." Dive said, looking at Duke.

"Very well, we have one of the representatives here on the station which should do."

"Thank you," Dive replied, as they walked through the station towards the Seabird residence. "Make sure that they come here as we will not be moving away till I hear back from my connection."

"Of course, Lord Flashblade," The officer said, as they walked past a couple Saurian females standing at the loading bay of one of the other shuttles.

'_Lord Flashblade_?' she thought as she turned to look and saw the dish water blond hair of the Duck that walked past. She yelled. "Hey Nosedive!" Just on the lark that it was him.

Dive looked over his shoulder and smiled huge. "Hey! Just the Ebon Dragon I was looking for! What brings you out here?"

"Oh, we had an engine problem in our shuttle that we were on. We're staying here for an hour before we get going on another shuttle to the Pluto station and then back to the empire. Alor will be thrilled to hear that you are okay. We heard about the invasion on Puckworld, she is most concerned about your welfare." Trithria said, as she walked over to him and hugged him. She looked at Duke. "So who is he, your manservant?"

Duke looked offended by that. Dive grabbed his arm and smiled. "No, he's a friend of mine. Duke L'Orange, Lord of the Mountain kingdom of Puckworld, meet Lady Trithria, Ebon Dragon from the Tri-Markey Empire and guardian of her royal highness the Lady Alor. Lady Trithria, meet Duke L'Orange, Lord of the Mountain kingdom of Puckworld."

Trithria smiled. "From what I hear the mountain kingdom was pretty unscathed in the attack, actually from Seabird reports completely unharmed, so were the Doves, basically the plains got it,"

"Sadly, the plains got it hard. Many Ducks died, but my brother and I were rescued by Canard." Dive replied.

"Canard . . . wasn't he the one who liked little Lola?" She asked.

"Yes and sadly, he didn't make it." Dive replied.

"His guild master who he was attendant to is going to grieve for him. She never had an attendant who was that good at keeping her needs in mind and was prepared to deal with them quickly without her needing to ask." Trithria said. "What about your brother? Did he get his girl that he talked to Sora about?"

"They're back together, and will probably marry."

"That is great. How did she get to where you are now?" Trithria asked.

Dive told her, what happened and how lucky she was to get to Earth and reunited with them. He looked at her and asked. "There is one slight problem that I have and I'm hoping you can help me with it, Trithria?"

"Name it and I'll do what I can?" asked Trithria.

"I need throwing daggers several of them." Dive said.

"What happen to the ones you had?"

"Taken from me in the camps," Dive replied. "I tried to hold onto them but the Saurians took them from me."

Trithria cringed then looked to Natasha. "You've got better contacts than I do, any ideas?"

Natasha raised a brow, "When it comes to blades it's Siris I'd want to talk to, maybe Carter, those two are more attuned to Blades, I'm more energy weapons."

"All right, they shouldn't be too hard to get into contact with. They're home. We can use the video phone to get in contact with them." Trithria replied.

"We'll use the one in his room, this is not for public ears."

Natasha nodded. "I prefer it private. Who knows who would be listening and knowing that he's weaponless would be a bad thing."

She nodded. "Yeah and unarmed Flashblade is very bad." she whispered as they followed Dive's escort to the unoccupied Seabird residence.

With a glance over at Dive, for permission and getting the nod from him, Natasha went to the videophone and dialed Carter's home number. She stood there waiting to see his face appear on the screen.

"It's the middle of the night, this better be good." Siris's voice came from the other end.

"It is very important, Siris." Natasha said. "I have a Flashblade here that is without his weapons. He needs to have several throwing daggers. Can you get them for him?"

Dive looked at the fox on the screen. He recalled Grin talking about his caretakers being foxes. He poked his head into view of Siris. "You don't happen to know a big, gray, muscular drake by the name of Grin, by chance?"

"Why wouldn't I have? He's Carter's adopted son and my nephew, and his little sister and his lover are worried sick, so any information you have on how he's doing would be much appreciated."

"He's on the planet called Earth and he's okay. He's my best friend. He spoke highly of his adoptive dad and uncle. He will be pleased that I told you where he was at so his boyfriend and sis now know where he is at now." Dive replied.

"Okay, so what type of throwing daggers do you need, young Flashblade?" asked Siris.

"Lightweight and yet very durable as I have a problem with a stalker," Dive replied.

"This won't come cheap, but you've already paid part of the favor as it stands, I have one condition that needs to be met."

"What's that?"

"Protect Grin, Carter worried to no end and your protection of him would give peace of mind."

"I promised Grin that as long as he has my back protected, I'll have his back protected as well. We're best friends and I would rather die then let him get seriously hurt, Siris." Dive said.

Duke knew that Grin was ordered by Canard to keep an eye out for the kid but did Grin change the deal since that order was given. He would have to ask Grin about that later.

"I'm glad, he's very important to the rim worlds, he's the child of Anita Syth, one of our most beloved heroes."

"Do you want a message to be given to him, Siris? I can give it to him when I see him." Dive said.

"Tell him Adrian is worried sick and Nami is demanding to know when he'll be back to play with her."

"I'll tell him that." Dive replied, as he grabbed a piece of paper and started to jot it down.

"You'll have to give me a few hours, getting those daggers is going to be a bit difficult as well arranging for express transport."

"Okay, I'm only going to be here till tomorrow afternoon, so do your best." Dive stated, as he thought about how long it would be before Kala took to the ice at the game. He thought about calling Wing up and asking him to move the game back by couple days.

"I'll do what I can, I'll call you back when I have more information."

"Okay," Dive said, as Siris's face disappeared and the screen went black. "I think I better call Wing up and see if he can't move the game back couple of days."

"That is a good idea, that way; Siris can get the daggers here in time. He would have to use a lot of gates to get them here and he probably wouldn't let them go by messenger either. He probably will bring them himself." Natasha said.

Trithria shrugged. "He'd use a Dove or a Seabird messenger, you know someone he can trust, and you know there are a few, I've seen you deal with them."

"Then, he'll be using a Seabird to get the daggers here." Natasha replied. "This way, any rumors of the Flashblades' deaths will be over when Lolita hears of Dive's appearance here."

Dive nodded. "Because Kelsa and Lola are sisters, so the question remains who's going to be Kelsa's messenger."

Natasha smirked. "No one would suspect her but then again Sora is not a cook to be messed with."

"No one would dare cross her. She's good with the throwing daggers as well as to paw to hand combat." Trithria replied.

Duke listened in confusion, it was like another world, and yet very familiar to how things were within the Blade.

"You are awfully silent, Lord L'Orange, the Saurian got your tongue?" Trithria asked, with a smile on her face.

"I've never seen this side of Dive before, I don't think many ever will, what he shows to others is not the Dive in front of me."

"So what does he show?" asked Trithria.

"A care free goofy kid, who knows a lot about pop culture, someone you wouldn't expect in a battle field or even know of they can handle weapons, defenseless and an easy target."

"And the Dive you see is far different than what you normally see?"

"Yes." Duke replied.

"Are you surprised?"

"In a way no, Canard allowed the kid in for a reason, now I see the reason."

"That the kid is far more useful than he looks?" Trithria asked.

"That Dive is as capable as Mallory or him as a soldier. And all this time, I thought of him as baggage."

"You really thought of me like that Duke?" asked Dive.

"Yes, I didn't really have many expectations of you. You were a novice in our ranks, just like Wing but Canard told me that he has inside of himself to be a great leader as he thinks fast on his feet to keep the pucks away from the net." Duke replied.

Natasha smirked as she looked at Duke. "I'd put Nosedive on par with the red haired Mallory, both are capable living weapons, Dive a bit more so since it seems to be in his blood."

"Mallory . . . don't you mean Mallory McMallard, by chance?" Dive asked.

"Yes, she's as close as you can get to one of the top five Bounty Hunters. Natasha here is ranked in the top three of the Bounty Hunters. The top three are Siris, Rowain and of course, Natasha." Trithria replied.

Dive whistled. "Yeah, Rowain taught me several techniques when Lola was busy with her mom, he'd definitely not someone I'd want to mess with."

Duke raised a brow. "You mean that annoying Raptrin cop is also a bounty hunter?"

"And a Dove, Rowain has many hobbies."

"And a damn sexy body that I would love to have on my naked body, but he's in love with Red Orchid." Natasha replied.

Trithria just chuckled. "Natasha, why don't you ask him for a night in your bed when you see him next, everyone knows you want him?"

"Even if I ask him again it's still going to be a no, I promised after the 50th time I'd stop asking he won't give in, besides at this point he's accounted for, just not formally married."

"Who is he married to and would she allow you to have a night in his bed?" asked Duke.

"He's not formally married to her yet, there is paperwork that needs to be signed first. But her name is Red Orchid and she's his mate if she returns to his side." Natasha replied. "But I wonder if she would let me have a night of romance with her mate, she never seemed the type to be jealous but you can't really tell about her, she keeps her emotions about others pretty tight."

Dive wondered if he could talk with Alor and then he realized that if they woke Siris up, it would be a bad time to get in touch with Alor. But he had to take that chance. "Trithria, could Alor be up at this hour?"

"Possibly, she does have some weird hours." Trithria replied, after she thought about it.

"Could you check for me? I don't know their video code." Dive asked.

"Sure," Trithria typed in the video code and waited a few moments before the one who handled all video calls appeared at the screen. "Is Lady Alor awake?"

"No, her Ladyship retired an hour ago. Can I videotape a message for her?" he asked.

Trithria smiled. "Yes, hold on." She turned to Dive. "You can video tape a message to her."

"I was hoping to do better than that, Trithria but it will do." Dive replied, as he stepped next to Trithria who promptly pushed him out of the video screen. He looked at her weird.

"Start recording the video now. My Lady Alor, you will be shocked to see who I have found on a remote satellite outpost . . . Nosedive!" She yanked Nosedive into view of the screen.

"Hey Alor, what's happening, girlfriend? I'm okay, my brother's okay. We're safe. Don't worry about me anymore. Trithria told me that you were worried about me. We're fine. Just stuck on a planet called Earth, that's all, till we're able to capture Dragaunus and send him back to Dimensional Limbo, we'll be back on Puckworld." Dive smiled as he waved at the screen and then he placed his hand on the screen. "Don't worry about me anymore, girlfriend, I'm okay. I wasn't harmed in the attack. Take care of yourself, Alor."

"Stop recording now." Trithria said, as the one who recorded the message came into view. "Thank you . . . would you please deliver that message to Lady Alor as soon as she is fully awake. Tell her that she has a very urgent message to listen to."

"I will do as you ask. Guess he is someone of importance to Lady Alor?"

"He's an old friend of hers and one that she hasn't been able to get in touch with in over two years." Trithria replied. "This will please her to no end."

"I will do so. It will be good to see her smiling once more." The messenger said, as the screen went dark.

"Smiling again? What happened?" Dive asked.

"When we heard the reports of Puckworld being invaded, she thought you were possibly dead and threw herself down the stairs and she was at a delicate place in her first pregnancy too. The fall made her miscarry and she has yet to conceive again. The doctors fear that it is because of her grief over losing a close friend that is hindering her. Her husband is very understanding of her and has not pushed her for relations yet. He is hoping that she will let him soon." Trithria replied.

"He'll soon find out that she's a tiger in bed when she hears the message. She'll want to get frisky." Dive smiled.

"I hope so, Dive. He was so sad at the loss of what would have been his firstborn and heir to the throne, but he understood her grief when we told him how much you meant to her and that you were the one who actually convinced her that it might not be too bad being married to him." Trithria stated.

_TBC__ . . ._


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three of stalker's poisoned dart.  
**

The videophone beeped, as Trithria answered it to see a recorded message appear on the screen. She pushed the accept message button. The screen flashed Siris's face. "The daggers have been acquired and will be bringing them to the Earth station in the next seven hours." The screen went dark.

Duke looked at Dive and Trithria. "Did I hear him right? Did he say will be bringing them?"

"Yes, I wonder what he means by that." Dive wondered.

Natasha shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. He's mysterious as well as good looking."

"So you want to do him too?" Trithria asked.

"Not really, he's not my type." Natasha replied.

"Well, the Galactic ID guy should be here soon." Dive said, looking at the clock. Just after he said that, the chime rang off. "Perfect timing, yup, that's him." He chirped as he went to the door and looked through the peephole to see him standing there.

Natasha pushed Dive out of the way and opened the door herself. "ID, please?" The representative pulled out his ID and showed it to the Saurian. The door opened wider as the woman motioned for him to enter. "Sorry about that, we have a high ranking member here."

"I'd expect as much, one can not be too cautious about security, this port is not one of the safest because it is quite out of the way from the main trade lines."

"Agreed." Natasha replied. She pointed to Duke. "This is Lord Duke L'Orange of the mountain kingdom on Puckworld. He has no Galactic ID and he would like one very much."

"Who will be paying for his ID?" he asked, as he walked over to Duke.

"I will. My credits should still be good here." Dive replied, pulling out his credit card from his time on Kelsa's ship.

"Very well, I will need, some documentation but the rest should be simple enough, if you don't have your documents you can always dial home and have them digitally sent if your region has an active port."

Duke pulled out his Puckworldian ID. "This is all I have as in documentation. But if you need more, I can call the mountain keeper to send more, if needed." He recalled that the mountain port should possibly be operational by now.

"We need to in order to confirm status papers. These ID are only good for converting statistical information."

"Very well, let me get to the video phone and dial Baki up." Duke went to the video phone and thought for a moment before he started to type in the code to the mountain kingdom and to the video phone that he told Baki to have installed the last time he was there. He stood there waiting patiently for Baki's face to appear.

When Baki saw Duke the first thing that came out of his beak was. "Duke L'Orange, thank the stars you are safe, I was worried sick about you and the mountains were in an uproar."

"You can calm them down now. I'm safe but I'm on another planet right now. I need my birth papers, my friend." Duke said, as he looked at the familiar face of Baki.

"I'll forward the papers to you, considering you are calling from a port it's probably for ID, I'll include pedigree papers as well as the official guild papers and Medical documentation."

Duke looked surprised. "I have guild papers? And how'd you get my medical doc from the Blade?"

Baki grinned. "The Brotherhood of the Blade is a classified shadow guild, and is also still viewed as active, as for your medical papers the Blade won't keep anything from me, after all it was made clear that anything concerning you was also my own concern when you became a part of the Blade."

"Is there anything that you don't know about me, Baki?" asked Duke.

"One thing, what you were thinking when you joined that strike force! Dragaunus did not even touch the mountain kingdom, right now we have Saurians seeking refuge since Dragaunus is now off world and things are getting pretty bad on the plains. So what are you doing about the Saurians, my Lord?"

"What are you doing for them right now, Baki?" Duke asked.

"Giving them refuge, they're not our enemies."

"Good, keep it going. Tell them that the Mountain Lord accepts all Saurians who want nothing to do with the plains folk. They may live there in peace. But if one of them steps out of line, they risk losing my protection. I gave them a safe place to live in and if they break it, the one who did it is to be expelled to the plains or they can work their crime off in the dead city fixing it up to look as good as it did before. The graves should be clean and visible." Duke said.

"Very well, most of them keep well within the law here, especially since we still have Saurian families that have always lived here."

"Good. Send the paperwork as soon as possible, Baki," Duke replied.

"Of course my Lord," Baki said, as he bowed to Duke and disappeared from view.

"Duke, you're a Lord?" asked Dive, looking at him.

"Yeah, I'm the Lord of the mountain kingdoms. All of the mountains on Puckworld are part of my kingdom. Where is your lands, Dive?" asked Duke.

"Sunset Valley, Wing's would have been the flash plains." Dive said almost depressed. "In other words he's actually got the right to be upset with Dragaunus because the plains if they still acknowledged their rulers would have been his."

"You mean Wing's kingdom would be the plains if they recognized him as the flash plains ruler?" Duke asked, shocked.

"Yes, if they recognized him as the Lord of the flash plains, Dragaunus would have to appeal to him for retribution for the past sins done to his ancestors." Dive replied.

"So Wing's leadership skills are in his blood, and he'd fighting Dragaunus for his own people, to be honest I can't blame him for it."

"He's not even aware that they are his people. We were never told that we were the heirs to the title of Lord Flashblade." Dive said.

"Then how did you know?"

"Lola and Kelsa,"

"So they were very wise Seabirds then?" asked Duke.

"Yeah, they knew more the some of the best Duck scholars."

"Wow," Duke said. "So what else do they know?"

"A lot, but are you hungry, Duke?" asked Dive, noticing that his stomach was growling.

"Yeah, now that you make mention of it," Duke replied. He remembered that the ID guy and the two Saurians were there. "Uh, Dive, our guests,"

Dive looked at the ID guy who was reading his computer screen and then over to Trithria and Natasha to see them silently observing them. "We'll feed them too, Duke." He looked at Trithria. "Is there any good take out places here?"

"There is a few, mostly Rim style though."

"Okay, I'm game." Dive said.

Trithria went to the video phone and dialed a take out place and ordered several meals for them and placed it on Dive's credit card. She looked at them. "It will be here in about thirty minutes."

"Good," Dive replied, as he turned to look at the rep. "How's the ID coming along?"

"Still receiving and cross-referencing files."

"How long will it be before it is done and he can get his Galactic ID card?" asked Dive.

"A few hours at best,"

"Dive, it will mean we will be stuck here for at least a full day maybe longer." Duke said.

Dive bit his lower lip. "Damn, can you make it a rush?"

"I'll try but something like this being slow is the best thing." The rep said. "Why?"

Dive looked at Duke. "It is nothing of your concern." He turned to look at the girls. "I really need those daggers fast."

Trithria looked at Natasha. "It will take at least a day for the messenger to get here, Dive."

Dive walked over to the wall and started to pound his head into it, for a minute before he went to the video phone and dialed a number. "Tanya, get me my brother now! We have a problem."

"Ok Dive, hold on." Tanya said as she went to find Wing. Tanya flipped up her com and called for Wing to come to the command center, his brother was on the video phone and there is a problem.

"I'll be right there," Wing said, as he closed his connection and looked at Kala. "Got to see what his problem is."

"Okay, Wing. I'm going to continue my reading in my chamber." Kala said, as she picked up her books and headed for her chambers.

Wing walked towards the command center. Tanya looked at him and shrugged her shoulders as she walked out of the command center. "Dive, what's the problem?"

"My tools will be getting here tomorrow evening."

"Can't you get them sooner? I need you during the game."

"I know, Wing. But can't you push the game back by a day?"

"I can't, Dive. You will just have to find a way to get them here in one day." Wing said.

"Can't you try to get it pushed back a day? Just try bro and call me back at this number with your answer." Dive said. The screen going black ending the call.

"That was harsh, Dive." Duke replied.

"I know, it will push him to see if he can push it back a day." Dive stated. "It is the only way . . . we can get the daggers here in time for me to protect Kala."

"Hopefully, Siris's messenger can get here in time. Natasha, what means could he be using to get here?" asked Duke.

"There is a few ways," Natasha replied. She looked at him and then her eyes went wide, as she started to shake her head. "That little Fox bastard, he's gating it here! He's coming here personally!"

"What do you mean?" asked Dive.

"It is a very expensive way to travel by the gates but it is the fastest way to get something from one place to another. The way by messenger would have taken at least three days to get here and by what you said, it will be too late. He's using the gates to travel here." Natasha replied.

"The gates? Never heard of those."

"The gate system was implemented a few years back, though it's like using spatial distortions for travel it is still limited so it's not a mainstream transport system yet."

"Is it faster than normal transport?" Dive asked.

"By days, Dive, you could go from here to the planet Siris is on right now, within seven to ten hours. But that depends on how many gates you have to go through to get there." Natasha replied.

"And what are the risks?"

"Pretty high if the gate tech doesn't know what they are doing."

"So they are trained?"

"Trained and tested every month to keep them on their toes." Trithria said. "Sometimes, they're tested every two weeks or each month, they are never told when they are tested so they would be on their toes."

"Good, I'd be really worried then, especially since it's not standard like messenger ships."

Trithria nodded. "The merchants guild doesn't like them, even though the long term goal is to create jump point for large trade ships, so far only the Seabird fleet among the Suscan traders has made some use of them and owns a couple in their key ports."

"So it might get popular for the thieves or the assassin guilds before regular people will use them?" asked Duke.

"Possibly," Natasha said. "Some Bounty Hunters use the gates when they are needed to get to somewhere fast and without much fuss."

"So basically guilds that rely on speed over safety, makes sense."

"Well, some of the hunts that the Bounty Hunters do is time sensitive and they can't go for slow and steady when a life hangs in the balance, Duke." Natasha said.

"Yeah, but commerce should rely on slow and steady unless if it's an emergency,"

"So true," Dive said. He looked at the clock and started to count the numbers. "So he called us about an hour ago. If he is traveling here himself via the gates it will take him about six or nine hours to get here."

"Pretty much, don't expect him any sooner then six hours."

"Okay, but who is going to go meet him?" asked Dive.

"I'll do it," Natasha said. "I'll be able to give him information on why you need the weapons so quick."

Trithria looked at Dive. "So why do you really need them so soon, Dive?"

"My brother's fiancée has a stalker and with the possible chance of him attacking her in a publicity event is nil since she doesn't go to them, the chance would be at the game itself." Dive said.

"So your brother has you don body guard duty and you can't do that unarmed. It's got to be serious for your brother to have you do a contract. Last I checked the Assassin's Shadow guild had you classified under permanent Seabird/Dove contract, and as a class 4 Assassin."

The galactic ID rep looked up from the files they were reviewing. "Mr. L'Orange is a Class 1 in his guild, I'm actually surprised that a planetary guild master doesn't have an ID already, though the world in question has been cut off for some time but Shadow guild never break ties."

Duke looked at him puzzled by what he heard. The look didn't pass Trithria by. "Looks like he wasn't aware of his status off world,"

"Duke, guild masters are high profile, usually leaders either on a station or a planet, they're the best of the best."

"I guess I'm a guild master as I am the best of the best thieves on Puckworld," Duke replied.

The ID rep looked at Duke. "What is your rank in your thieving group, Lord L'Orange?"

"I'm the leader of the Brotherhood of the Blade." Duke said.

The door chime rang off which Natasha walked over to check out to see that it was the person from the take out place. "Foods here, Dive."

"Great, I'm starved." Dive replied.

"I'll start dishing it out while you pay the delivery guy," she said as she went to the kitchenette.

Dive walked up to him and pulled out his credit card and allowed him to swipe it.

"Thank you, Lord Flashblade. Enjoy your dinner." The delivery man said, as he gave him the receipt and left for the store.

Dive closed the door and headed for the dining room table where the food was on. "Smells good, in a way, I wish Sora was here to cook for us. She is a great chef."

The two ladies both nodded. "You really can't beat Sora's cooking."

Duke looked at them. "Who is Sora?"

"She's the head cook on the Seabird flag ship, a feisty feline who can work wonders in the kitchen, also one hell of a fighter."

"Sounds like some one I'd like to meet one day."

"She'll probably be honored to feed another Lord, who is friends with the two Flashblades." Trithria replied.

"Didn't she say something about if the youngest didn't have a mate, she would see if her older sister would like having him as her mate?" Natasha asked, looking at Trithria.

"I seriously think he would be better off with a Pilgrim or at least an Avian or a good Suscan female." Trithria replied.

"Or maybe a good Saurian female," Natasha said, as she started to eat her meal.

Dive and Duke listened with interest as the two ladies talked about who would be a good choice in a mate for Dive.

Duke looked at Dive. "So what will you do if Siris doesn't come in time for us to get the weapons?"

Dive sighed. "Then, I'll have no choice but to purchase them on Earth and hope that when I need to use them that they do not break."

Natasha looked over at them. "He'll get them here, don't worry."

"I hope he gets them here." Dive replied, as he started to eat at his meal. Even though he was hungry he was very nervous.

Natasha looked at him. "Don't worry, Dive, he'll be here if he or his messenger is going by the gates."

Dive was not at ease by her remark as soon as he was done eating, he began to pace within the living room. Duke sat there watching him pace back and forth. And every so often, when a ship was approaching the station to dock, Dive would stand at the window to observe it and seeing the numbers on the hull, returned to pacing.

"Hey Dive, have you done any practicing with the weapons of late?" asked Natasha. She knew when she was nervous about something a nice workout with her favorite weapons always seem to soothe her nerves, she figured Dive was the same with how nervous he was acting.

"It's been a couple years, use to practice regularly back home."

"There's a sparing room on guild level of this place, not often used."

"Cool, let's go." Dive said, as Natasha smiled.

They headed off to the sparing room. Natasha looked over to the person who was standing there and whispered something to him. "Dive, you want to pick some weapons to practice with?"

Dive turned to look at her. "What weapons?"

The person flipped a button and revealed a hidden panel and the weapons that showed up on the wall. "Are these approvable, my Lord?"

"They'll do," Dive said as he ogled the throwing daggers then his eyes went to the sword. "It's been ages since I've practiced with a sword."

"Will the Lord be using a sword in this workout?" the person asked, as he looked at him and then to Natasha.

Natasha looked at Dive and then to the person. "Sure, he'll be using both the daggers and the sword. He should work out with them both."

"Very well, my Lady." The person replied, as he pulled out the sword and pulled the throwing daggers out of the weapons panel.

Dive walked over to the person and picked up the sword. From what Duke saw, he was amazed by how easy that Dive had handled the sword. This was something that should have proven to be hard for Dive to handle a sword so easily.

Duke looked over at Dive. "You have handled a sword before didn't you, Dive?"

"Many times, daggers are far ranged attacks but a sword is for up close and personal."

Duke looked shocked. "Why haven't I seen you with daggers or a sword before now?"

"Because they're confiscated by the Saurians back on Puckworld, that's why."

"But we have weapons like that in the workout room. I never had seen them removed or used at all." Duke asked.

"They're too low quality I'm personally scared that I'll break them."

"Too low quality, but they were made by the best companies out there?" Duke asked.

"That's Earth qualities, the quality that I'm used to are like these daggers, Duke. Here feel the weight of this dagger and you tell me what you think?" asked Dive, grabbing one of the daggers and holding it out to Duke.

Duke took hold of it and was surprised by the weight but also at the balance of the blade. "They feel . . . different. Heavier and yet the blade is very balanced."

"Of course they should be. They are made to be the best even if this station is a lowly outpost circling a not so good planet." The weapon handler stated, as he looked at Duke, taking the dagger from him and placing it back on the panel.

"Not so good planet?" asked Duke. He never heard anyone call Earth that before.

"Yeah, not even close to being galactic ready, most humans who come from there are for zoo exhibits." Duke didn't even understand. Dive noticed it and looked at Trithria and nodded. Trithria looked at Duke and spoke, "Duke, that planet is not ready. It is too young to be in the trade routes."

"So humans are just regarded as animals?"

"Yeah, too primitive to be considered people,"

Duke slowly nodded. "Well, they are a bit barbaric."

"They still can't unify as one race."

"When they finally do become one race, that day will be the day that they join in the ranks of civilized planets. They can join the trade routes, instead of being called a backwater barbaric planet." Natasha stated.

Dive nodded. "Puckworld still cut off but the Doves and the old Orithian kingdom of the mountains still have full trade privileges."

"Yes, that is correct. There is trade still going on there, but not like it once was before the war." Trithria stated.

"I hope it changes, but I know that will take time."

"That we know," Trithria replied. "But there are some people who are hopeful that this planet will prove to be worth their belief."

"How long will they keep it?" asked Duke.

"Well, considering who they are, they can handle a good three thousand years of waiting or longer if needed." Natasha replied.

"Who are they?" asked Dive, as he started to practice using his sword a little ways off.

"Danilyn and Samantha Heliossombre, two Ladies from the Vampire courts," Natasha replied. "They believe that this world will be unified one day."

"They've got time enough to wait; though I'm surprised vampires have such a keen interest."

"You shouldn't be so surprised Lord Flashblade, unlike vampires on Earth and a few on Puckworld, vampires don't turn others into vampires, you are born one. Vampires are a race of their own even if they come from different racial backgrounds."

"Oh?" Dive was interested as he lowered the sword to the floor. "Tell me more?"

"For one, there are vampires on Earth that deals with nonhuman laws, and they're the only unified race on that planet." Natasha replied.

"So there are more then just humans on Earth?"

"There is but the death rate is higher then the birth rate, a few regional reps have implemented breeding laws requiring non humans have children. Females get extra non human child care allowances for every child they have be they mated or not, for any real hope their birth rates must be higher then the death rate."

"What's causing all the deaths?'"

"Humans mostly, they have yet to make peace with non humans and that will be our means of knowing when humans are ready,"

"Ready to be accepted into the trading ranks of the galaxies," Dive replied.

"That is correct," Trithria said.

Duke sighed. "Earth is starting to sound less and less simple the more I know about it."

"I agree," Dive replied. "It is a lot more complicated than Puckworld is."

"Actually, Dive, Puckworld has it easy once they accept the fact . . ." Trithria said.

"Trithria, say no more to them," Natasha stated, as she grabbed her mouth. "They do not know and it will only be told to them when they are ready as the rest of their world is ready for it."

Trithria nodded as she closed her mouth not to say anything more to them. "Dive, shouldn't you be practicing?"

"Yeah, I could use a sparing partner though."

Duke stepped up, but Dive shook his head to him. "I'll go too easy with you, Duke. I'm beyond your experiences with your sabre."

"Why not?" asked Duke.

"You will see, Duke." Natasha stated, as she picked up her weapon of choice and took to the sparing mat with Dive.

Duke watched with surprise, the kid would have wiped the floor and then some with him. Trithria stood beside him. "He's grown a lot since I first met him, though always sweet and kind, I have to keep reminding myself that even though he's my friend he is also a living weapon."

"The kid is a living weapon?" Duke asked shocked, as he turned his attention to Dive to see him wield the sword with a lot of expertise and flair. Natasha was holding her own amazingly enough but Dive was really going full steam at her.

"You didn't know he was one?" Trithria replied.

"Hadn't a clue."

"He hides it very well, then." Trithria said, as she watched Natasha go at Dive even harder than before, but Dive managed to keep her weapon from hitting him. "You can never tell who could be one by their appearances."

"I guess so," Duke replied, as he looked at Dive in awe. "No wonder Canard allowed him to join the team. He acted goofy when he got his weapon in his hand for the first time."

"Dive probably didn't want to show that he was experienced in handling weapons when he had spent years handling them."

Duke nodded. "But Canard also didn't want him with us."

"But in the end, Dive came along. Canard must have had a reason behind bringing him along." Trithria stated.

"Maybe Canard knew if we failed in destroying Dragaunus that Nosedive might be able to?" Duke asked.

"Probably, though it's odd he's leave the lady he loved unprotected."

"Well, from what Canard said, she was forced to leave him or her father would kill him." Duke replied.

"But he wouldn't have touched Nosedive."

Trithria looked at Duke. "That is unknown. Lord Collin may have gone after Dive if she took Canard as her mate. He may have given her a decision to make. Take Canard as her mate and he would claim Nosedive as his new Shadow or something like that to prevent her from taking Canard as her mate." She looked over at Nosedive. "I think deep in her heart, she hated herself for letting her father trap her into the life she now leads but to protect the people she cared about . . . Canard and Dive, she gave up her struggle against her father."

"You knew her well then?"

"Her situation has never been a secret around those who have dealt with the Seabirds."

"Really?" Duke asked.

"Yeah, when I met Dive I was a newcomer though Lady Alor kept insisting on using Seabird transport so I just became someone they knew and Kelsa actually told me and Alor the situation."

Duke looked at her. "So they trusted you with the situation with Lolita and her father."

"Yes."

"Then, why didn't she just disappear?"

"Because no matter where she goes, they would find her,"

"Even if she did run, Duke, Lord Collin would have sent his living weapons or Lolita's cousin Lord Rowain Ringdove after her and he would find her no matter where she ran, he would find her." Dive said, as he walked over to them. Natasha nodded as she agreed with Dive's comment.

"So even if she did run, she would never be truly free from them?"

"Sad to say, but yes, she will never be free from them unless someone steps up and takes her place," Natasha stated.

"Who is this someone?" asked Duke.

"Lolita's cousin Rowain Ringdove," Natasha replied.

"How likely is that?"

"Pretty likely if him and the lady he is engaged to get married, but who knows, the Saurian attack has complicated things, Puckworld may be a backwater world but right now it's caused a galactic political ripple, Lord Collin is showing signs of illness, there is a huge uncertainty on which of the two is the next Black Dove and of course the further uncertainty to when there will be an heir to the Seabird fleet. Not to mention the Lady of the Rim world is only still a small child and no one knows if she will live to be an adult, as well as Lady Alor has yet to have an heir for the Tri-Markey Empire. So yeah right now everything is in a huge bout of uncertainty and with the gate systems there is no means of knowing how it's going to effect trade and transport."

Duke whistled Draggy had really picked a bad time. "In other words Dragaunus made the level of uncertainty overflow and no one is happy about it."

"Correct," Natasha replied. "He really made the galactic levels become very uneasy."

"So the people in the other systems are very nervous right now?" asked Duke.

They nodded. "Yeah, which means it's gonna effect supplies going to your home world as well."

"Great, thanks a lot, Dragaunus, you little pucker." Duke replied.

"Duke, shame on you," Dive snapped. "Cussing in front of the ladies, shameful Duke,"

Natasha chuckled as she blocked Dive's next attack. "Trithria, me and Nosedive will be a while, so why don't you and Duke head back to the Seabird quarters and do some species exploration."

"I would like to stay. I never had really seen Dive fight with a sword before." Duke said.

Trithria blushed. "Natasha, concentrate on sparing, besides he's probably already got a female and who know how territorial she is."

"I am dating a lady duck. I'm just hoping she'll see me as a person instead of a thief," Duke replied.

"How about this Natasha, if I win I'll take Trithria back to my quarters and you can spar with Duke." Dive said with an evil grin as he back Natasha's swing.

"You are on, Nosedive!" Natasha replied as she swung at Dive again.

Duke looked at Trithria whose cheeks were red. "You're not objecting?"

She shook her head. "I haven't had any for a long time, nervous but also a bit turned on by the notion."

"How long is a long time?"

"Since before I became an ebon dragon over 40 years ago."

"Wow, surely you could ask them to allow you to have a few nights to allow yourself to be a female?" asked Duke.

"I couldn't ask them for that. I have my responsibilities to deal with, Duke." Trithria replied.

"But why are you here instead of by her side?" asked Duke.

"I got assigned to Natasha for some extra training, my second is guarding Alor."

"Ah. If she gave you the chance to be . . . well, with a male of your own species would you?" Duke asked.

"You mean Alor or Natasha?"

"Alor, Trithria." Duke said.

"Ahh, I actually like my males with feathers, it's a bit of a fetish and hybrid children are so adorable."

"Oh so you are an avian lover then?"

She nodded, "Yeah, but then again its not uncommon, the Tri-Markey Empire is mostly populated by Avians and Saurians."

"Wow, I didn't know that."

Trithria smiled. "And now you know."

Duke turned back to watch Dive and Natasha go at it still. They were still going good at each other. Duke noticed that after two hours of working out, they were barely sweating. "They are good."

"Natasha is the number two bounty hunter; her skills are at par with that of a living weapon."

"So she is equal to that of Dive if he is a living weapon?"

"Duke, Dive IS a living weapon." Trithria replied.

"We shall see how long they hold up with each other."

"I think they will probably end up in a tie, Duke."

"You think so?"

"By how they are moving, I would think so."

They found chairs to sit in and watched as Dive and Natasha went at each other. It was really another two hours before they called it quits. Dive leaned against Natasha and spoke tiredly. "You did really great out there, Natasha. I had a great workout."

"Same," she said as she got the score chart from the weapon's master. "And looks like you beat me by two points."

Dive grinned. "That a pretty narrow win,"

"Indeed, but you were rusty at first and then you got better by the minute, Dive," Natasha stated.

"Yeah," Dive glanced at the clock by the wall. "Is that time right?"

Natasha looked at the clock. "I think so, why?"

"Damn! We both need showers ASAP; Siris's messenger should be arriving here in less than an hour!" Dive replied.

"At earliest Nosedive, they may be later."

"True, but still they shouldn't come into the residence with both of us stinking of workout." Dive said, as he lifted his arm and smelled his underarm scent. "And I reek!"

"Okay, let's go get a shower in and get ready to see the messenger." Natasha said, after she noticed that she smelled too. "Dive, do you have a clean pair of clothes to get into after you shower?"

"I didn't bring any spares, of all the luck."

"Well, there is a washer and a dryer in the Seabird residence; you could use that to wash your clothes. I'm sure there is a bathrobe left behind by one of them." Natasha replied.

Dive nodded, "True,"

"Now, let's get there before we have no time to get your clothes clean." Natasha stated, as they headed back to the Seabird residence.

When they got there, Dive headed off to one of the rooms to change into the bathrobe that was left there. It was a tight fit but it did the job. Trithria found the soap for the washer and took Dive's clothes from him and put them in. "So did Duke's IDs come through?"

"Yes, the rep left them here and wrote a note stating that he's all legal now." Dive replied, holding up the note from the rep in his hand.

Duke grinned. "I got a feeling this will come in handy."

"It probably will, but then again the guild now knows your current location and that you have all your ids, which means work will be sent your way."

"But I promised Wing I wouldn't steal."

"Who says it would be just that sort of work? The thieves guild also get contracted as security specialists, since who can spot security holes better than a thief, it's just like assassins are also contracted as body guards because they can spot attempts that regular people won't."

"Well, as long as it is something like that and not to steal something," Duke replied.

"Well, I should get the guild master on the screen and let you tell him about what you will take and what you won't take." Trithria said.

"Probably, since it would be hell if Wing got wind of it."

Trithria nodded. "From what you told me, Wing would not be too pleased about it. But who was the one who got the team on Earth going after the criminals?"

Dive smirked. "Well, you would think Wing would be the one but all he was concerned with was capturing Dragaunus. It was Duke who saw a couple needing help and he convinced Wing that if we didn't stop the criminals in the city then we're no better than Dragaunus. That was when Wing made his first decision as our leader to fight the criminal element in the city."

"Wow, so he was slowly coming into himself as a leader at that time? What made him confirm that he was the only leader for the team?" asked Natasha.

"Because to be honest the rest of us really suck as leaders when it comes to the strike force."

"So you all tried to lead the team, why didn't Wildwing lead?" Natasha asked.

"Well, he sort of . . . quit on us." Dive said, scratching the back of his head.

"Why did he quit?" Natasha asked.

"He really didn't think himself a leader."

"But why would he quit, wouldn't he try to do his best?"

"The Saurians tricked him into thinking that Canard was back and we were lured out to a location and nearly got us all killed if it wasn't for my quick thinking and threw my sabre into the Cliffside and started to grab everyone as we fell. When we returned to the Pond, that was when he quit and left the Mask behind. Each one of us Ducks tried to be the replacement leader but it was Wing who ended up realizing that he was the only leader for the team and reclaimed his role as leader." Duke replied.

"So while he was gone he went on a journey to find that he was the only leader for the team?" asked Trithria.

Duke nodded. "That's what we suspect."

Dive nodded. "He never told us where he went but he came back with couple aliens called Flork and Zork. They said that they were Watchers."

Natasha cringed. "I hate Watchers, pompous arrogant and really not in tune with the rest of the known universe."

"They can't be all bad?" Dive asked.

"Oh they think they know it all and whatever others do is looked down at like we're stupid aliens." Trithria replied.

"Hasn't anyone gone and taught then a lesson?"

"We try our best to ignore them, though it's been close the past while to actually declare war on them."

"Wonder what Wing did to get the two on Earth reasonable."

"I'd like to know that too."

"I think he probably told them that the Saurians that were descended from the ones sent off into Dimensional Limbo had returned as they did make comment about finding out that the Puckworldian Saurians were alive once again." Duke replied.

"Well, that is a change for them. They would demand proof of that claim before they believe something like that." Natasha said, as she pulled open the washer and grabbed the clothes and put them into the dryer and turned it on.

"I think it's because they saw Draggy and his goons first hand."

"Ah, I bet they were shocked by that." Natasha replied as she hopped up on the dryer looking at Duke and Dive.

"Yeah and they promised us that they would go after those who do harm to others or something like that," Duke said.

"They've probably been imprisoned then, their race is anti interference even though they do."

"Probably because one of them wanted to blow them up," Dive replied.

Trithria and Natasha laughed. "That would probably be one of the reasons why they're locked up if they are."

Dive smirked, "True enough."

They just sat there or stood there waiting for the dryer to finish drying the clothes. Dive noticed that Natasha was also in a robe. She must have added her clothes to the washer and then the dryer when he didn't pay attention to Trithria when she was collecting his clothes.

Trithria sighed and turned on the station news and broadcast channel, if nothing else it would be a means of breaking the silence. They watched the news of the station before the news reporters talked about the planet that they orbited around and the problems it had.

"Trithria, do they do that often?" asked Duke.

"Do what?"

"Talk about the problems on the planet that they're orbiting?" asked Duke.

"They do, every station had its own broadcast channel, and it's always good to know what's going on planet side before you go there."

"Ah, so in a way, warning visitors what to expect planet side." Dive said.

"Yes," Natasha replied.

"It's too let the people know how to handle themselves there and if they need to use a guise on the planet too." Trithria stated. "Like your planet, most of the visitors down there are in disguise."

"Probably a good thing, it's a mixed thing with us and humans."

"Yeah, the humans were really shaken when they learned about us at first." Duke said.

"You're lucky you weren't killed."

"Yeah, but they were all shocked by our appearance." Dive replied.

"And they would be, humans have very little concept of other races beyond them."

"Agreed, after we got our home built, we did a little history check of this world's contact with alien life to find that there was nothing at all." Duke stated, calmly.

"So you learned that they did have contact but it was not with officials of the government,"

"Yeah, if there was contact with the government it was covered up within 24 hours." Dive said.

"Roswell is one of them. It was clearly an alien ship but the government didn't want to really admit that there is alien life on other planets just yet. Our appearance shocked them and they had to admit that there is other life out there." Duke replied.

"So they finally had to admit after forty some years that there was alien life out in space. Did they admit that their planet has been visited by alien life form?" asked Trithria.

"I don't think they did, basically they're treating us like the first encounter."

"Pity," Trithria replied, as she walked away.

"Why?" asked Duke.

Trithria looked over at him. "If they announced that they were visited before by alien life form, they would be almost ready to be accepted into the ranks of the traders, but if they haven't yet, we'll just have to wait till they become one with peace."

"You are talking like Grin, Trithria." Dive said.

Trithria smiled. "Thanks."

Natasha looked at Trithria. "There is already one race living there that already has a bit of interaction with those who live off planet. And they have had encountered a Puckworldian way before they came to this planet."

"Another Puckworldian is on Earth? When did that happen?" asked Dive. He was now very interested as he didn't expect that a Puckworldian would have been here before they.

"She's part of the non human federation, they're native to Earth, were-creatures, magi, some are vampires, an of course the fair folk."

"You mean it is a female duck?" asked Dive. He was now very excited.

"Yes, but she's mated to Lord Loki and has given him a child or two from what I heard." Natasha replied. "And she is a hot vixen of a duck."

"Ah man, she's already got a mate. So what's this Loki guy like?"

"Loki, he is a Vampire male." Natasha stated. "White hair, black skin, quite the sexy beast he is."

"So you have met him before?" Duke asked.

"Yes."

"Where does he live at?" asked Duke.

"Vancouver, British Columbia. His mate Kalashira is a drop dead, sexy duck. Black feathers and cobalt blue hair and ice blue eyes. She is quite the Lady and she's his second-in-command and a woman you do not want to mess around with." Natasha said, as she looked at him. "I'm going to go to the gate bay and wait for Siris."

"Ok, hopefully he's not running late."

"Probably not, but the gate people should be able to give me an ETA at this point."

"Okay, call us on the videophone when he is due to arrive. I'm going to get the daggers from his messenger and head for the bay and head for home." Dive said.

Natasha nodded as she headed out of the apartment for the gates. Once, there she asked the gate handler for the ETA for a messenger from the Rim World. But she didn't expect the news that she got.

"There is no one being sent from the Rim World, Lady Natasha to this port." He replied.

"That little lying fucking fox, when I get my hands on him, he'll wish he was never born!" Natasha said, angry as hell.

"Well, because the person has already arrived here, Natasha." A voice said, coming from behind him.

Natasha swung around to see Siris standing there in his bounty hunter clothing, with a bag on his shoulder. "You sneaky fox you! I outta kick your ass from here to Rim World."

"I love you too sweetheart, but we can continue this argument later don't you think?" He said as he gave her a polite kiss on the cheek. "I have a task to finish, and then I'll be more then glad to ease your female frustrations."

"This way, he's in the Seabird residence here." Natasha replied, as she led him to the apartment. She rang the chime and stated her name to the voice she heard over the com. As the door opened, it was Duke who saw the person behind Natasha.

"That's the messenger?" asked Duke.

"No, this is Lord Siris Winddancer, Duke. He came personally here to hand the weapons over to Dive." Natasha replied.

"Actually, I'm interested in this stalker problem that Lord Flashblade has. I haven't dealt with a stalker in a long, long time." Siris replied, as he walked into the room behind Natasha.

"Of course you haven't, stalkers are low profile jobs."

"I know, but they were always fun."

"Yes, but this is a duel mission for me. I'm going to see my nephew and see where he lives and if it is good enough for him and I'll help Dive with this stalker problem of his." Siris replied.

Nosedive walked out of the bedroom fully dressed. "Siris Winddancer, I presume?"

"That is me, Lord Flashblade." Siris said, as he bowed to him. He held out the bag to him. "I hope these are suitable to you."

Dive took the bag and put them on the table removing them from the sheaths. Each one had a Dove carved handle. Dive held each one in his hand before he sheathed them quickly. "Did you bring anything to hold them on your person, Siris?"

"Yes, here." Siris replied, as he pulled out of the bag the carrier for them. "Just wrap it around your chest and its easy access to throw at the person in question. So tell me about this stalker who is stalking you?"

"He's not stalking me, he's stalking my older brother's mate to be, and is threatening to hurt her which doesn't bode well for my brother's nerves, his mate to be doesn't know about the stalker yet."

Siris paced in the room thinking. "Does she do anything that would bring her into public view?"

"No, she is very private and the only time people really see her is when she's on the ice." Dive said.

"So the real risk factor is in that, you've already gauged the best lookout point?"

"Yes, the rafters are off limits to all but the stadium staffers and us. We both can hide up there and watch the crowd and the ice for anyone who could do harm to my brother's girlfriend." Nosedive said.

"Okay, any other places where someone could hide out at?" Siris asked.

"I'm not sure; the only place where no one would be looking at would be the rafters." Dive said.

"I'll have to examine the whole rink, then." Siris stated, as he looked at Dive. "So when does your shuttle leave?"

"It can leave now, if we want." Dive said.

"Then let's go. The more time we spend up here the less time we'll have to make sure the place is secure."

Nosedive nodded as he turned to Trithria and hugged her tightly before letting her go and then hugged her again. "That second hug is for Alor. Give that to her when you both are alone." He turned to Natasha. "Maybe another time, doll."

Natasha smiled at him. "I might drop in and visit you, Dive."

Dive smiled as they headed for the bay with Siris by his side. When they got to the gate, Dive told the woman who took the tickets to call the pilots for the shuttle, he wants to leave immediately.

The woman nodded and dialed a number. She spoke for a few minutes before she hung up the phone. "Lord Flashblade, they'll be here in twenty minutes. It will take another ten before the shuttle is ready to return to the planet."

"Thank you," Dive said, as he went to a chair and sat down in it. "Do you have your paperwork, Siris?"

"Of course I do, besides I'm still in my own territory, Earth is a Rim World."

"Does the MiB know that?" asked Duke. "They love to harass us on occasions."

Siris grinned. "Oh they know alright, they need mine and Carter's permission just to run their organization to manage off world species."

"And one day, Grin's?" said Duke.

"No, that goes to his sister Nami. She really rules Rim World. We do in her name till she is of age to assume control for herself." Siris replied, looking at him.

"So, females rule and the males do what?" asked Duke.

"We support our females, give them comfort and if they permit us hold down our own jobs. It takes three times the work for a male to reach the respectability of a female and yet we still have to comfort and support when they need it."

Duke gave Siris an odd look as he mulled over what was said to him, then it sunk in, males regardless of how strong they were, smart or skilled, obeyed the females without question. "So even though you are the number one bounty hunter you still obey a particular female?"

Siris nods. "Till Nami is old enough, Carter and I are under Nina."

"And she probably gave you permission to come didn't she?" Duke asked.

"Yup, even she is worried about Grin." Siris replied.

"You don't feel restrained by having to have her permission?"

Siris laughed. "Carter and I grew up with Nina. It's more of a matter of just telling her where we are going or what we are up to, she rarely objects."

"That's good." Duke said, as he noticed three people approaching the bay.

Siris noticed the look as did Dive. Dive spoke. "Relax Duke, those are the pilots. We'll be able to board in another ten minutes once they get in."

"Sorry, just not sure how the MiB's are going to react to what Dive acquired just now."

"There's nothing wrong with what he's acquired, nor do they have the authority to take them from him."

"That's good," Duke replied. "Because Dive spent a good amount of time up here for naught if he is not able to take them to the Pond."

Dive showed Duke one of the daggers, particularly the hilt, the emblem should be some what recognizable to him.

"Dove? But Dive, you're not one of them?" asked Duke.

"Dive stands on the line between his brother's world and the Dove, all he's missing to be on the side of the Doves is the blood pact of House Flashblade, and that is only a matter of time, right now he's got the privileges because it is also in the Doves' best interest to protect his older brother who is not a living weapon."

"And Duke, don't tell Wing that I am a living weapon or I'll hurt you really bad," Dive whispered.

"Ok ok, I won't Dive, it's just . . . well yeah I can't blame you knowing your brother he'd molt with worry."

"Do you know the week after Kala came, he molted big time on his back and his front. It took him three days to get new feathers to grow in again. That was because of Phil's constant demand of having her do publicity stunts." Dive replied.

Siris looked at them. "Publicity stunts, for what?" He was stumped by what he heard.

"Strange human things, I don't think it's anything like the publicity things Carter does."

"That can't be good for anyone's health." Siris muttered just imaging the horrors of strange human stuff.

"Yeah, some of his stunts that he takes us on are down right dangerous at times," Duke said.

"Your manager is insane; I mean even merchants guild has standards when it comes to managing an entertainer."

"Well, Phil is a money hungry human. He basically threw a fit when he learned that our money that we made; we got instead of him and built our home base under the Pond. He fired his lawyer because he didn't catch the clause we put into the contract and made him into a seller of hot dogs at the Pond." Duke said.

"But needless to say, we threatened him with firing him if he tries to do anymore publicity stunts with Kala." Dive replied.

"You should just fire him; a merchant's guild manager would be less stress."

"Maybe we should consider it, Dive. You can talk to Wing about it," said Duke.

"I think it would be best to wait to see if he improves or not. And if not, Kala has suggested that we should hire her PR person Jesse to be co-manager of the team and the last one to give the yea or nay to the stunts." Dive stated.

"Maybe, but then again there would still be no more guarantees."

"True, but who knows she might be better than Phil." Duke said.

"My Lord Flashblade, your shuttle is ready to go now." The woman said, as she looked at him.

"Good, I'm ready to go back to the Pond." Dive replied.

"Have a pleasant trip home." The woman said, as she watched as the three males walked down the corridor towards the shuttle itself before she closed the door.

They sat down in the seats and buckled up so they could take off as quickly as possible. Dive leaned back in his seat as did Siris and both closed their eyes for the short trip to Earth. Duke watched everything as he knew this might be the only time he would ever go into outer space again.

_TBC__ . . ._


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four of The Stalker's poisoned dart.**

**  
**

The shuttle landed at the nearest MiB's landing strip. Dive opened his eyes and quickly stretched to finish waking up. "How long was I asleep?"

"About an hour, we're here at the MiB's landing strip." Duke replied, looking at him as he, too, stretched his limbs before he stood up in the aisle.

Siris yawned before he got up from his seat. "So the boring job of going through MiB customs wait for you, Duke, we'll be rushed through."

Duke frowned, "I'm sticking with Dive."

Siris just smiled as they headed out of the shuttle towards the custom area, but they were halted before they reached the custom area, checked IDs and escorted past the custom area to meet up with the West Coast's MiB leader M. Duke wondered why were they being taken to him. "Dive, Siris, what's going on here?"

"Well, since we're high ranking diplomats, Duke, I guess they want to see us personally." Dive replied.

"Oh," Duke said, as he followed behind them. Duke wanted to see what was going to happen; he'd glimpsed this side of the kid once when Mallory had pointed the gun at him, at the time he had just thought the kid foolish. He should have paid more attention. This time around he was going to make sure he knew exactly where the kid stood.

They walked into an office to see a gray haired man talking to several screens. They could see one man from New York called Zed. He turned and smiled before turning to look at the men on the screens. "I must go now, I have diplomats from the Rim World and the Dove lands here."

"Best of luck, the Doves can be hard to deal with."

"He's one of the resident Puckworldians that live here." M replied, as the screens went dark. He turned around from the screens to look at them. "Lord Siris Winddancer, a pleasure to see you. I didn't expect to see you come for another nine months. Is this trip a pleasure visit or business?"

"A bit of both, M, my nephew Grin Winddancer is living here and I came to see how he is and plus help young Lord Nosedive Flashblade here with a stalker problem of his brother's future wife Kaladan." Siris stated.

"Stalker, why didn't you come to us first, Mr. Flashblade?" M asked, turning his attention to Dive.

"Personal reasons, we wanted to deal with it in house so to speak, bringing in those who may not keep their mouths shut would only make guarding Kala a lot harder." Dive stated.

"Then why is Lord Winddancer helping you in this when it's in house?"

"Because as Grin's uncle he will not be too out of place and I doubt he'd allow himself to be visible to humans."

"I will be hidden from view by hiding in the rafters of the Pond and of course, a vehicle transporting us into the garage of the Pond too would be nice," Siris stated.

"That can be arranged, though our sensors have detected weapons that Lord Flashblade didn't leave with."

"Those are his assigned weapons . . . they were left behind and were just recently returned to him."

"May I see them please?" asked M.

Dive smiled. "Sure." He said as he withdrew his daggers. He held them by the blade showing off the hilt of the daggers, just so M knew that they were his Dove daggers.

"You may put them away, Lord Flashblade." M replied, as he jotted down how many daggers he brought onto the planet. "I'll summon a car for you to leave for the Pond immediately, Lord Flashblade."

"Thank you," Nosedive said, as he looked at him picking up the phone and barking an order into it.

Duke was surprised that M didn't insist on the confiscation of the daggers, Siris and Dive really had that kind of authority. He watched as M escorted them back down to the ground floor to where he took them to a garage where a black car waited for them. After they got into the car and drove away from MiB headquarters, Duke sighed a sigh of relief.

"Why so worried, Duke?" asked Siris.

"Well, M didn't take the daggers from Dive. He could have taken them." Duke replied.

"Not really unless you know about current Dove politics its best not to do anything that might cause a war."

"What do you mean?"

"Lord Collin isn't their concern really, it's his Shadow. She controls the Dove more then Collin does at the moment but also has a direct means of controlling the Seabird fleet which means she can hit with more then military, but galactic trade embargos."

"Ouch, that would bite for Earth," Duke replied.

"Yup, so they tread very carefully around any Dove. No matter who they are, they are scared that if they report back to her, they would be in a heap of trouble," Dive said.

"So if you're on the line then what sort of clout do you have with her?"

"She's a close friend to me and Wing, and was Canard's love of his life."

"Wow," Duke was awed. He had no clue. He noticed that they were getting close to the Pond. He opened his com and beeped Tanya. "Hey Tanya, can you go down to the garage and open the garage doors for us, we're back plus one."

"Ok, who's the plus one?"

"A Mr. Winddancer,"

"Oh one of Grin's relatives, I'll get him on the system then."

"Thank you and let Wing know we're home." Dive said over his com.

"Will do and I'll tell him we also have a guest with you." Tanya replied, as she closed the connections. Tanya turned her com to Wing's com and spoke, "Wing, Dive and Duke are back and they brought one more person with them. They'll be in the garage shortly."

"Who is this other person?" Wing asked.

"Grin's relative." Tanya stated.

"Okay, I'll alert him that his family is here," Wing replied, closing his connection and heading from his quarters to Grin's and rang the chime. "Grin, it's me, Wildwing. You have company coming in a few minutes in the garage."

Grin got up; "Do you know who it is?"

"They didn't say, I don't think it will be much of a problem."

"That depends on who it is."

"Why do you say that?" asked Wing, as they started to walk down the corridor.

Grin smiled. "You will see."

Wing went with Grin to the garage to see Dive, Duke, and Tanya along with a fox being kissing Tanya's hand. Grin sighed with relief, his uncle had the composure of business, he'd have enough time to make sure he didn't flirt with anyone at inappropriate times.

"Siris!" Grin cried out, as he hurried towards Siris, who turned away from Tanya to see Grin coming down the stairs.

Siris smiled. "Oh Grin it is so good to see you again. I . . . I mean your family was worried sick over you when we couldn't contact you at all. What happened?"

"Saurians from Dimensional Limbo attacked Puckworld and conquered it." Grin said. He basically gave Siris a quick discussion on what happened on Puckworld while he was there for a visit to his parents' grave and that of his mentor who had died a few days before.

Siris scowled. "I have half the mind to drag you back home when I go back, it depends if Nina will allow you to stay after all the worry."

"Well, I will be returning home as soon as we capture Dragaunus and send him back where he belongs." Grin said. "But you can send my love to the rest of the family and to my lover."

"Grin, if Nina orders you home, with or without the Saurian you will return, until your younger sister is old enough, Nina's orders will be obeyed."

"I know, but Nina will understand. She probably will want me to be in contact with her on a weekly basis if I am permitted to remain here," Grin replied.

"That might be approvable by her at least little Nami will be able to see her big brother more often." Siris said.

"True, have the assassination attempts stopped?"

"They've gone down but you know they won't go away till Nami can stand her ground on her own, she's too young still so Carter and Nina protect her."

Dive looked at Siris. "I pulled you away from another bodyguard duty, you better go and get back to your charge, Siris, and I'll handle this on my own."

"No, Carter and Nina can handle it while I'm gone. Besides, they both would whip my tail if I didn't remain here. Friends of Grin are friends of ours and we support our friends," Siris stated. "Now, where is this rafters, you spoke about, Dive."

"I'll show you, oh but please try not to flirt too much with the clothed females, they are dressed because of being used to a cold weather world."

"You mean you haven't had several molts to get accustomed to the weather here?" Siris asked.

"That and humans have opposite customs to the rest of the Rim, so they insist on females' being clothed as a modesty thing."

Siris nodded as he followed Dive to where the rink was at. He scanned the whole arena before his eyes laid onto the rafters above. "That area is a good place to hide out at. Let's head up there now and plot where we will be staying at."

"Alright, it's a good view of everything as well."

"We'll see when we get up there and plan where we will be at, Dive." Siris stated, as they headed to the rafters. Once, there Siris figured out the perfect place for both of them to be hidden in. He even showed Dive where he would hide out and with his coloring he was barely visible in the shadows of the rafters.

"I can barely see you in the shadows, Siris." Dive replied.

"The shadows will be darker when we're on duty, Dive." Siris stated, as he looked at the ice and then to Dive. "So when is the game?"

"Tonight at 8pm." Dive replied. "I tried to get it pushed back but Wing didn't do it."

Siris looked over at Wing. "I never had to work on protecting anyone this fast and do we know who the person is who is stalking her?"

Wing shook his head. "We do not know what he looks like at all."

"Great, that will really make this nine-hundred times harder than it is." Siris replied. He looked at Tanya. "My dear lady; is there a way for me and Dive to be in communications with each other while we're on the rafters as I do not want to reveal ourselves to the stalker before we act."

"I got several ear and microphones that is in my lab." Tanya said, looking at him.

"That might work. May I see them please?" asked Siris.

"Sure, I'll get them right away."

Siris watched as she hurried away. "Is she married or at least seeing anyone? She's sexy?"

Dive looked at him. "Tanya . . . no, she's not married nor is she seeing anyone. She's . . . I would say is not interested in having a relationship."

"Oh, maybe she would be interested in a one night stand?" Siris suggested, his tail flapping from one side to another.

Grin shook his head as he placed his hand on Siris's shoulder. "I don't think she would, uncle."

"Spoil sport, at least a game of tezga then, Adrian told me you had taught her that some time ago."

Wing raised a brow; he hadn't known that Grin and Tanya had been friends before they were a part of the strike force. "As long as you are here before the crowd comes in and that will be about 7pm."

"Not a problem, I've been playing the game since I was a pup, I'll go easy on her I don't like taking advantage of novices."

"Okay, but I should warn you, my fiancée doesn't know that she has a stalker so make up something as to why you are here if you see her, which is most likely as she does stay in the recreation room." Wing suggested.

"That will not be a problem, Wildwing," Siris replied, as he looked at him.

They headed down to the recreation room where Siris was introduced to Kaladan who was interested in him. "Are you by chance a dancer?"

"Not really, my younger brother is, though I do indulge in it at times along with some singing."

"Oh, you look like you are a dancer. Your frame is lightweight and thinner than most Foxes from the outer planets. Perfect for a dancer," Kala stated, as she looked at him.

"Thank you, Lady Kaladan," Siris said, as he smiled at her.

"Are you by chance related to a Carter Winddancer?" she asked.

"Carter is my younger brother and Grin's adoptive father." Siris replied.

Kala looked at him in surprise. "I've seen many holo cubes of his performances from my friend Lola, there is nothing like that on Puckworld,"

"It is a shame really; usually a dancer has to be adept at alchemy or magic to be able to do high caliber performances."

"But he does look like he is wielding at least either alchemy or magic to perform those performances," Kala said. "Lola told me that she saw him dance before and she believes that he is using alchemy in his dances or at least one form of it."

Siris smiled, "Water illusion alchemy as well as air vibration alchemy."

"When I was at Cassiopeia, those were taught to those who were well versed in all of the other alchemy, I couldn't do any of those let alone the fire illusion alchemy," Kala replied.

"Alchemy is too difficult for a magic user to master, just like alchemists have no magical potential."

"So why are you here?"

"I'm here to see how my nephew is living and to see how healthy he is, Lady Kaladan," Siris replied.

Kala didn't get any hint of lies from Siris; it made her smiled since he was telling the truth. "Then, I shouldn't keep you two from each other."

"Thank you," Siris said.

* * *

It was 7pm when Siris and Dive started their setup, the small microphones and receivers Tanya had lent them worked within range. Both Siris and Dive were clothed to hide in the shadows. They were ready for anything as they watched from their perches as the crowd filtered into the arena.

"Dive, when will we see action or will this guy not show up?" asked Siris, as he scanned the crowd looking for anyone suspicious.

"Not sure, it could be in the middle of the game or close to the end," Dive replied.

"Do you want him alive or dead?"

"I think that depends on how much of a fight he puts up."

"Maybe we should just wound him and try to find out why he did something like this, so you and the others can prevent another stalker from attacking another member of your team?" Siris suggested, as he looked at the stands.

"I'll go for that. Capturing him live will be the best for all of us," Dive stated, as he looked towards Siris. "So how was your time with Grin?"

"It was good, made him call Nina and have him explain why he'd like her permission to remain."

"So, did she say yes to him remaining or ordered him to return home?"

"He can stay but she does want to have him vacation at home once a year for a few weeks," Siris replied.

"Sounds like he got off easy,"

"He did, she was much stricter with Carter and I."

"I bet," Dive whispered. He pointed to the staff only door that would lead to where they were at but the person just walked past. "Sorry, false alarm."

"Well, good thing Tanya suggested that we should video tape that door when it opens so the person who is after Kaladan will be viewed sneaking into this section of the arena. Plus getting this area videoed will assist in putting him away." Siris stated, looking at all the video recorders that hung around the area.

"Yeah, that took us a good hour to attach them up here before we had to hide." Dive replied. "Hopefully, they're recording everything. It is a ten hour video and the game will be done in about three hours or less."

"Did you remember to set up a camera or two on the roof?"

"Yup, just in case he or she decides to slip into the arena by the roof," Dive stated.

It was about five minutes into the second period did Siris notice something strange about one male who stood by the staff only door and then stood in front of it blocking what he was doing. "Dive, the staff only door, we have action." Siris whispered into his microphone.

Dive turned his attention just in time to see the door close. "Damn it, I missed him. He's in the stairwell to get up here. Stay alert, Siris, this guy may be the one we're looking for."

Siris nodded and took his position beside the door to apprehend the guy when he came through.

"Siris let him past. We need to get evidence on tape if he is the stalker. He has to show something that would do harm to Kala before we take him down. Okay?" Dive said, as he looked towards Siris.

"Gotcha," Siris drifted further into the shadows and watched the door.

The door opened slowly as the man walked out and went to the rail. He watched the game for a few minutes before a duffle bag dropped to the ground by his feet. He reached within and pulled out a high powered dart gun with a silencer on the end.

"Now?" asked Siris, his tail was now swishing fast as he was wanting to jump the man now.

"Now," Dive said as he drew his daggers and knocked the gun out of his hand and got the side of his pant's leg pinned to the ground.

Siris had already leapt onto him pushing him to the floor of the walkway, but the guy started to fight. Siris bent close to his ear and whispered. "Continue to fight me and I will break your bloody neck faster than he would,"

The man stopped fighting Siris as Dive walked over to the man and with handcuffs slapped them onto his wrists and yanked his dagger from his pant's leg and sheathed it. "Now, you are in a heap of trouble, dude. Well, it looks like the game got stopped because the gun fell on the ice." Dive flipped on his com. "Wing, that gun was to shoot your woman, and tell the ref not to handle it. We got the stalker. Get Klegghorn here, we'll be down shortly."

"Ok Dive, looks like we'll have to postpone the game."

"Don't, Siris and I are the only ones who will be tied up with this." Dive replied, as they started to take their prisoner down to where security was located at.

They didn't like that this guy had managed to slip into a staff only location and got onto the rafters and tried to do one of the Ducks harm. They called the police but learned that Captain Klegghorn was already on his way with couple officers.

Dive smiled. "One thing I like about Klegghorn is that he's always on top of things."

Siris raised a brow. "You mean he was watching the game too and the gun falling tipped him off?"

"Yep, his mistrust of us comes in handily."

Siris hung back into the shadows of the room which was not much of a shadow as he was still seen. "So, the question remains, why did this guy go after your future sister-in-law?"

"Not sure, not till he tells us why?" Dive said, looking at the man who was staring at Siris. "What? Never saw a humanoid fox before?"

The man shook his head but said nothing.

"So why did you do it? I know humans are savages but I thought they'd have more common sense."

The man refused to speak.

Dive looked at Siris. "Maybe his wallet will tell who he is and we can go to Kala's office to get the letters that he sent to her?"

"That is a good idea," Siris replied. He got up from where he was kneeling and walked towards the door. "So where is her office at, Dive?"

"I'll show you where it is, we'll bring the letters back to show Klegghorn and we need to get the videos from Drake One up here so he can have the evidence of this guy sneaking in here and pulling out a gun to hurt one of the Ducks." Dive said, as they headed out of the office and towards Kala's office.

Siris followed mentally seeing where the securities points are were. He was a bit taken back by several places where the security was lacking at, as he shook his head. "You need to tighten your security system and people up around here, Dive. There are several access points that a person could get into and do harm to your people."

"Make a report to Wing, since Kala is here he'll do what we can to tighten them."

Siris nodded as he made sure to remember where they were located at as Dive came upon a door which he typed in a code and opened the door. "Is this Kala's office?"

"Yeah, she likes to be here with her PR person Jesse. Now where did she tell us that the letters were located at?" Dive mumbled to himself as he started to open some of the files. It took him about ten minutes to locate the letters. "Got them, now for the security tapes,"

They headed downstairs to Drake One where Tanya was working fast in getting everything dealt with the man on CD disk for Dive to give to Klegghorn. Tanya looked at them both. "So who is the stalker?"

"His name is Stefano Concord. He lives only three miles from here from what the address states on his letters that he sent to Kala." Dive said.

Tanya cringed, "So he's been watching for some time then, scary really it could have been any of us. Looks like Dragaunus aren't our only concern."

"Looks like it, Tanya." Dive replied. "From what I can tell from the postmarks he started a few days after the NHL Tonight appearance by us all."

Tanya shook her head. "Why didn't Jesse tell Wing sooner?"

"By how the last few letters got, they seem to be very normal sounding fan, Tanya." Dive replied, looking at her and then over to Siris. "The last ones that Jesse read for Kala was what prompted this whole thing."

"Ah, I see. Do you still have the letters that threatened her?" asked Siris. Dive nodded as he opened the safety deposit box that they had in Drake One's computer panels and pulled the letters out, one was obviously crumpled up. "Wing did that?"

"Yeah, from what Jesse told us later, he punched the locker after he read that letter." Dive stated.

Siris read the letter and was appalled by what was within it. "This guy demanded that she meet with him or he'll make sure that no one will have her. He is in my mind a mad man and that was clearly a threat to her life."

"I was shocked when I read that letter. I wanted to know the address and go after him personally but this way was the best as I cooled down and thought out a good plan while I was in space." Dive replied.

"I'd have him tried galactically but since he's human I'll let the human authorities have at him first."

"Yeah, he'll freak if he went to the galactic courts," Dive said, as they walked back to the security room to see Klegghorn standing there with one of the security guards by his side. "Hey, Klegghorn, here's the tapes of the rafters and us capturing him and the letters that will reveal why he is captured." Holding the tapes and the bag of letters in his hand out to Klegghorn.

"Why did you take this in-house and not inform me about this?" asked Klegghorn, hands on his hips as he glared at both Dive and Siris.

Siris smiled. "Not quite in-house, simply quietly. Oh before I forget." Siris said as he handed Klegghorn a few folded documents and a bounty hunter license card. "My bounty hunter license and guild rank, they are authorization papers as well as references if you need to double check my background. The final document is a warrant to capture the party intending to do harm to Kaladan, it's issued from the Seabird trade fleet of the Suscan trade federation."

"Okay, first things first, who the heck are you and who tried to harm Kaladan?" asked Klegghorn.

"I'm Siris Winddancer, as who tried to harm Kaladan, Nosedive Flashblade managed to get his name."

"His name is Stefano Concord, he lives about three miles from here per the address that are on the letters that he mailed to Kala." Dive said, as he held out the letters to Klegghorn. "Do you have the gun that fell to the ice?"

Klegghorn nodded. "It was the first place I went to was the ice. Seems that Duke got Kala against the wall of the rink and his saber was in his hand."

"Guess the old man shoved his saber up his sleeve for tonight's game." Dive smiled.

Siris looked at them. "Didn't Wing also assign Duke to guard Kala on the ice just in case he was able to fake his way onto the ice to harm Kala, Dive?"

Dive nodded. "He did, but you didn't tell any of us about the Suscan warrant."

"There wasn't any need to, though I think for his sake the culprit should be tried by a human court then by a galactic court."

Dive nodded. "The human court will be easier for him, if he goes to the galactic courts, they'll eat him alive, they will not let him live unlike the human court will."

"Exactly, which is why he was caught without you knowing sir, but will be handed over to you, humans are at a great disadvantage in a galactic court."

"May I read one of the letters?" asked Klegghorn, as he pulled on a latex glove.

"Sure, the first one is the threatening letter towards Kala." Dive said, handing the letters over to him.

Klegghorn read it and glared at Stefano. "I have enough evidence to arrest you for attempted murder and stalking of one Kaladan Thunderbeak." Klegghorn proceeded to read him his rights, before he hauled the man out of the room and to the waiting police car.

Klegghorn returned to the Pond and met up with Dive and Siris. "The DA will want to talk with both of you about this."

"Well, it will have to be just Dive as I have to get going in the morning." Siris replied, as he glanced at some of the women who walked past him.

Dive smiled as he noticed that Siris's tail was swishing from side to side as he gazed at the ladies. "Flirt."

"I can't help it; women are so attractive when completely clothed."

"They are very attractive," Dive said.

Klegghorn raised a brow. "Can I get a statement from you then?"

"Sure," Siris replied, looking towards him.

Klegghorn opened his note book and Siris gave him his account of what happened and left him with copies of the Seabird fleet warrant and his reference papers. Klegghorn also interviewed Dive.

Siris looked at Dive, "So do you think any of the ladies of the pleasure sections here be sterile?"

"Are you really hard up on a one night stand here, Siris?" asked Dive.

"Well, do you have a pleasure section here?"

"Yes, but they're all human. You might want to head back to the space port and jump a few gates to get to a real nice pleasure port." Dive replied.

Siris sighed. "I had heard there was a nice place around here; WCNHF was supposed to have a club around here?"

"WCNHF?" Dive asked.

"West Coast Non-Human Federation, it shouldn't be hard to find."

"Maybe it's in the phone book?" asked Dive.

"Nah, I have the address where it is located here. Want to come join me for a relaxing evening after we ditch the cop?" Siris asked. "I'm sure we can find a pretty lady to hang out with tonight."

Dive looked at him. "Sure, it will give me a place to hang out other than the comic book shop,"

Klegghorn watched them talk in a strange tongue, it was totally different from any tongue he heard them speak before.

Siris smiled. "I think we got Klegghorn confused by Suscan tongue, Dive."

"Yeah, he doesn't know that tongue and there is no way, I'm going to teach him how to speak it either," Dive replied.

"Very wise, humans would get into too much trouble with it."

"Yeah and besides it is good to speak in another tongue when we need to discuss private things and not have the humans overhear it," Dive replied.

Siris grinned. "I'll meet you back here in an hour, so you can finish dealing with the human,"

Klegghorn watched as Siris walked out of the room. "What did you two talk about?"

"Oh, we're going to get together later and talk about Earth, he's very interested in the planet." Dive said. "So is there anything else you need to ask of me?"

"Oh, would you be able to go to the trial if the DA needs to call on you, Dive?"

"Sure, just give a ring and I'll come put my two cents into the trial as will Jesse who was the one who alerted us to this guy." Dive said, as he escorted Klegghorn out of the Pond itself to his waiting car. "Drive carefully, Klegghorn."

Klegghorn drove away from there with Dive waving goodbye to him. Dive smiled and headed back to the rink where he gave thumbs up to Wing, before jotting something down in Puckworldian and giving it to Phil to give to Wing and hightailed it to his room where he changed clothes and headed to the security area where Siris was standing at. "Are you ready to go, Siris?"

"I am, do you have a vehicle we can use? Don't think humans are going to react well to seeing me."

Dive checked Siris out and nodded, "I think I can come up with something. Come on," Dive headed to the locker room and slipped into the elevator where they headed to the lower levels. Dive walked to where the garage was at as Siris noticed several helmets hanging up. Dive opened one of the lockers and pulled out a jacket and some loose looking pants. "These are called leathers; they're for riding on motorcycles. Put it on and if your tail can't really fit in the pants very well, I'll cut a hole for it and you can hide it under the jacket."

"I'll wrap it around my waist; a tail in pants is rather uncomfortable."

"Okay," Dive pulled on his leathers as he walked towards the garage and turned on the lights to reveal several bikes and other vehicles. "We're taking this one. Did Nina give you a time frame on getting back home, Siris?"

"Not really, but I was planning on leaving in the morning."

"Okay, we'll make this an all-nighter then," Dive said, as he hopped on the motorcycle and started it up. "Hop on, we can get out of here and head for the ladies,"

"You know your brother will not be pleased that you pulled an all-nighter with me," Siris said.

"I know but I don't pull them very often and he knows that if needed I can get up real fast." Dive replied, looking at him as he climbed behind him. "So what is this place called?"

"Raven's Nest, supposedly one of the more interesting clubs around this part,"

"I know where it is, I go past it when I'm just cruising the city at night," Dive said, as he started to drive in the direction of Raven's Nest.

It took them not long to get there, Dive parked the cycle not close but enough to where he could see the door. "I don't know how we're going to get in there, Siris. It's for members only and I'm not."

Siris smiled. "That's the cover, Dive. They'll let you in as they will me." Siris stated as he started to walk towards the bouncer looking around the area for any cameras, when he was happy with the lack of cameras, his tail came out from around his waist.

The bouncer took one look at the tail and then Siris, he nodded his head as Siris and Dive walked past him and into the club.

Dive's beak nearly hit he floor when he saw inside, there wasn't a human in sight, even the strippers on stage were either in fur or feathers, and even one had scales. He took another look, there were beings that looked human but he was sure humans didn't have pointy ears, or fangs, or could make their drinks hover. "What is this place, Siris?"

"It's a non human club, to drink, to be entertained and good for a one night stand."

"I hope none of the ladies are in their Lust as I'm too young to have a family." Dive said, as he eyed one of the feathered females on stage.

"Ladies who do nights of pleasure here don't expect the male to be responsible, but the west coast leader has been trying to encourage non human population growth so those of them who get knocked up are actually encouraged to be single parents."

"So they won't be coming after me for child support payments or anything?" asked Dive.

"Nope, unless you want them to look you up so you know what you got if you got them with duckling, Dive." Siris replied, as he pulled off his helmet and got the leathers off and handed them to the attendant who gave him a number to retrieve them with.

Dive removed his leathers and handed them to the attendant who gave him a number as they walked towards the bar. "So this west coast leader, what is he like?"

"What I know is more from rumor, he really doesn't like humans, his mate is avian, and he's trying to encourage non human population growth. One thing is for sure he cares about his people."

"Avian as in like a Puckworldian or more like the birds that live here?" asked Dive, as they took a seat at the bar. "Or is this the same female that I heard Trithria make mention of back on the station."

"The female Trithria mentioned back on the station."

"They call her Kalashira, she's the west coast leader's woman and she is one hot lady." The bartender spoke as she looked at them.

"Do they come here often?" asked Dive.

"They come twice a year when Lord Loki is doing his rounds to make sure everything is alright. The Representative for this city is Dominique."

"Who is Dominique?" asked Dive, looking at the bartender.

The bartender gestured to what looked like a black male feline type being. "He is Dominique, Lord Loki's representative in this city."

"Ah, okay." Dive said, he turned away from looking at the male. "Though I must say the name is somewhat deceiving,"

"So what do you two good looking's want to drink?" asked the bartender.

"Your strongest drink on the rocks," Siris said with a grin.

Dive raised a brow. "Rye and Coke." was his answer.

"Coming right up," The bartender started to pull something strange from a stack of bottles.

"What's that?" Dive asked.

"Our strongest drink from Pluto, that planet can make some pretty strong liquor. The MiBs don't like us bringing it in so they make us pay a good fee in bringing any amount in," He said, as he placed the amber liquid in front of Siris and the rye and Coke in front of Dive.

"You can get galactic drinks here?"

"Yeah, though the MIB and the Non Human Federation are not on good terms, Lord Loki made sure they had no control over native non humans."

"Ah, that is good to know; besides they have to go through us to even work on this planet." Siris replied, as he took the glass and took a sip of the liquid.

"They need to go through you to work here?" asked the bartender, making a motion towards one of the waitress to get the attention of Dominique.

"Yup, Earth is a Rim World planet and belongs to my niece Nami Winddancer," Siris replied.

Dominique walked over and heard what Siris stated. "Nami Winddancer owns this planet?"

"It belongs to the Rim which when she gets older, she'll take control." Siris replied. "But I'm sure she will be more than happy to let Lord Loki have his control over his locations."

"So the MIB isn't necessary?"

"They're for dealing with humans since they're not ready for the galactic level, I can't see any reason for them to have any authority with your non human federation."

Dominique smiled. "I shall inform Lord Loki of this information."

"I'll be here till tomorrow morning." Siris replied.

"Will you be having one of the ladies of pleasure tonight?" asked Dominique.

"Yes, if I like what I see of the clothed female." Siris replied.

Dominique snickered. "Interesting fetish,"

"The people from the Rim find the females who are naked to be in the mind for business but those who are clothed are looking for a long-term relationship or a one night stand," Siris replied. "And most of the females here look very lovely."

Dominique smiled. "So who are you interested in, a fox, avian, Saurian, Suscan, Fae or mage?"

"Saurian," Siris answered.

Dominique turned to look at Dive. "And you?"

Dive looked at him. "Uhm . . . avian please and they don't have to be fully dressed like what Siris likes,"

Dominique nodded as he walked away from them. His hand pulled out a cell phone and he started to talk on the phone with someone as he went to couple skimpy dressed females and told the Saurian to get dressed even further and entertain the Fox by the name of Siris and went to an avian and pointed Dive out to her, before he walked away from them.

Dive and Siris sat there on the stools talking with the bartender when the two ladies came to their sides and started talking with them. It didn't take them too long to pull them towards the private rooms and they went into their own private rooms.

Dominique watched as they headed into the rooms. "Dari, interrupt him if you must. He needs to know about this,"

Dari raised a brow. "What's it about, you know I can't interrupt without good reason."

"There is a Lord Winddancer here, he rules over Earth as a member of the Rim. He wants to meet up with Loki about his West Coast holdings."

"I see, I'll go interrupt him, but be prepared."

"He'll be here till late morning about 5am," He said, before hanging up the phone. He walked over to the bar and ordered a drink. "Be prepared, Loki's coming."

The bartender nodded as he made sure that Loki's favorite drink would be prepared to hand over to him when he arrived. "So why is he coming? Not because of those two?"

"It is because of the fox," Dominique replied.

"You think he can help Lord Loki deal with the MiB problem?"

"Probably, he makes them pay a fee for doing work here, from what Siris stated," Dominique stated.

"Really? Now I wonder what's going to happen when the fox guy finds out about what sort of problems they have been causing Loki."

"Who knows, till Loki meets up with him," Dominique replied, as he sipped his drink.

"Are they being . . . entertained?"

"Yes, both of them have ladies with them. They'll be busy till Loki gets here,"

"I'm guessing you picked some of the finer girls in the place, who knows how long they'll have to entertain till Loki shows up."

"Yeah, they'll be entertained till Loki gets here in couple hours from now, knowing Dari, she interrupted him immediately after I hung up the phone with her. I hope he doesn't hate her or me for it," He replied.

"He'll be in a mood at least till it gets down to politics."

"Yeah, but at least he'll be able to speak with one who has authority to do something about the MiBs,"

"That is true,"

* * *

The Saurian girl was grinning; she had never entertained someone who got horny from a girl being fully covered from the neck down. Even so he made the cloth work to his advantage and was getting her aroused as well to the point of her not knowing if he was entertaining her or if she was him. But she was enjoying his company so she kept on entertaining him when they heard a knock on the door. She wanted to snap but she knew something had to be wrong for them to interrupt a guest being entertained. She climbed off of him and opened the door.

"Lord Loki is here to see Lord Siris Winddancer." Dominique said.

She frowned. "Ok, he'll be out in a minute."

Siris looked at her. "Who was that?"

"That was Dominique; Lord Loki is here to see you." She replied.

"Ah," Siris got up and headed for the private bathroom where he took a quick shower and dried off just as fast before getting dressed. He went to Dive's door and knocked before he entered to see Dive pulling on his clothes. "You heard?"

"He came to my room as well as yours Siris; I want to meet this Loki." Dive said.

"We'll meet him together; you need to keep track of politics while you reside on this world."

"Yeah, I know." Dive replied, as he buttoned his pants as his girl was brushing out his hair and pulling it into a ponytail.

It was not too long before both men were walking down the stairs to see Dominique standing with a black man with long white hair.

"My Lord Loki, they're here." Dominique whispered.

Loki grinned. "A pleasure to meet you both, Dominique has informed me that the MIB may be overstepping their allowed boundaries, I'd like to know what those boundaries are."

"They are not to interfere with non humans meaning your people are off limits to them as they are native to this planet, only non native aliens are to be dealt with." Siris replied. "And if they are bothering native people then I shall make them realize that they are close to losing their permit to operate their business here,"

"Ah yes, the permit. You see right now their regulating our off world imports and making us pay a large duty fee for things they are trying to ban. Tell me is there a way to counteract that?"

"First of all I can't see why they are regulating like that, it shouldn't be within their boundaries, your federation has it's own trade port does it not?"

"The MIB have control over the trade ports, so our federation doesn't have one."

Siris raised a brow. "So that's how they're doing it." he sighed. "Find a safe city to have a port set up at, there will be a small trade tax till the cost is paid off, but it would be an open trade port for the non humans."

Loki thought about it and knew there was a safe city outside of Vancouver that he could have it operating at. But the noise itself would have to be hidden somehow. "I have a location in mind for it."

"Good, looks like I'll head back with you to survey the location, so I'll have to delay my return home for a few days."

"We can leave now if you wish. My mate Kalashira will escort you around the location after the sun rises for the day." Loki replied, as he looked at him and then noticed Dive standing there. "A Puckworldian and a male, excellent,"

Dive looked at him a bit taken back by how excited he sounded in seeing him. "What's so excellent about that?"

"It just means that my mate will be thrilled to know that there is a male of her species here," Loki replied.

Dive bit his bill. "Not sure if that's a good thing, she's been here much longer then myself and the others."

"Others?" asked Loki. This now perked his attention. He didn't know that there were more Puckworldians there.

"Yeah, my brother, his mate to be, Duke, Mallory, Tanya, and Grin,"

"Any images of them?" asked Loki. "And are there any offsprings on the way?"

"I've got a couple pictures, though offspring is probably at least a few years off."

Loki looked at the photos that Dive showed him. He nodded approvingly. "Good." He turned to look at Siris. "My car is waiting out front. We can leave now if you wish?"

Dive looked at him. "Go on, Siris, I'll be fine. Besides, I still got a good woman back in the room waiting for me,"

"Enjoy yourself here, Dive. You're a member of the club anyways," Siris replied.

"How did I become a member? I didn't sign any papers, I think," Dive asked.

Siris laughed, "Your not human, that's all that counts."

"And there is one rule here, no humans unless they're your pets," Loki stated calmly.

Dive nodded, he wouldn't bring any humans into the club, he kind of liked not being gawked at. "I like how I'm not looked at all the time when I go places. This place will be a welcome place for me and the others if they're interested in going out clubbing with me."

"The others will be welcome here too. There is nightly strip shows of our ladies and sometimes if you like what you see on the stage, just ask me to ask the lady of your choice to head for one of the rooms and you can have a more private entertainment in the room of either more of a strip show or sex or both," Dominique stated.

Dive grinned, "I'm gonna love this place," he said as he waved good bye to Siris and then headed back to the private room in hopes that the girls will still be there.

Siris smiled as he left the club with Loki to check out the location for his future space port.

* * *

Twenty-five days later, the trial for Kala's stalker went smoothly, Jesse and Dive testified in front of the jurors. The defense team tried to make it out to be a whole misunderstanding since they were aliens on the planet and that Stefano couldn't really harm Ms. Thunderbeak anyways. But that comment got the DA arguing in front of the jurors that why did Mr. Concord steal into the staff only sections and appear on the rafters of the Pond with a dart gun with a silencer on it and the darts that was examined was filled with enough tranquilizers to kill a horse, if it was just a misunderstanding. The judge had to calm them both down and advise the jurors not to take account of what was argued but consider the facts of the case. It took them only five hours before they rendered their verdict on Stefano Concord. The Ducks initially didn't want to be there when the verdict came in but Dive went there to hear it so he decided to represent them there. When the case was finalized, he walked out of the court house, he quickly radioed Wing.

"Dive, is the verdict in?" asked Wing.

"Yes, it came in just five minutes ago." Dive replied.

"And what was it?"

"He was found guilty on all accounts from stalking to attempted murder," Dive said.

"And his sentence is?"

"The judge gave it to him immediately instead of waiting a month for any appeals to come from the defense team. His sentence is life in prison without the possibility of parole, Wing, he will not be bothering your woman anymore," Dive noticed that the reporters started to surround him with their tape recorders close by. "Wing got to go, need to get away from the reporters."

"Okay," Wing replied.

Dive hurriedly left the area with them trying to follow him. After he ditched them, he reconnected with Wing. "I swear we need to keep our guards up for any more possible stalkers, Wing. Also have you secured the holes in the security around the rink, per Siris's suggestions?"

"Yes, Tanya finished those this morning."

"Good, I'll be coming home shortly. Just got to go thank the DA for a good job," Dive said.

"Okay, thanks Dive for being there. I don't think I could be there and they find him innocent of all the charges," Wing replied.

"If they did that, I would have rearrested him and sent him to galactic court and they'll find him guilty for sure," Dive said. All Dive saw was his brother's smile before he signed off. Dive headed off to the office where the DA was and thanked him for a great successful case, before he headed for home via the garage.

Duke looked at Dive when he entered the room. "So do you get paid for what you did, Dive?"

"Catching the guy? I don't think I'd charge Wing for that, and Siris gets the reward from the Seabirds."

"Shouldn't you let them know the verdict?" asked Duke.

"Already done, I went to the command room and called the Seabirds to inform Siris that he has the reward coming in from the stalking case and that the verdict is guilty on all charges." Dive smirked big.

"Too bad you don't get any of the reward money."

"Got something better then that, I'll have to show you sometime," Dive said with a grin.

_TBC__ . . ._


End file.
